Beast
by Lunar Kitty
Summary: Kagome is the solution to a terrible accident leaving both Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru crippled. Can she unravel the tangled web these brothers turned enemies have created and save them? Guaranteed updates! All chapters complete, ready to be posted!
1. Chapter One

Beast  
By: Lunar Kitty  
Setting: AU  
Anime: Inuyasha  
  
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Kagome Higurashi sighed in contentment as she walked into her three bedroom apartment with her older brother Souta, shaking snow off of her clothes as she came in. He had come home to visit from abroad just to visit her, and had even taken her on a shopping trip! What a phenomenal day! He had picked her up from her modeling job early. She was a Cover Girl, and modeled for Gucci and Chanel from time to time. She was quite the entrepreneur in the modeling business, and dated a well to do designer, Hojo Katawa, to boot. Setting down her packages on the leopard spotted couch, she began to giggle as she watched watched her brother walk through her apartment, checking all her doors and windows. Taking off her knee high leather boots, she sat them down beside the gas logs to dry, along with her lavendar wool scarf. Walking into her kitchen, it's sandstone tile floors and marble counter tops shining, she popped her head over the bar to look down the hall in the direction he had gone.   
  
"What are you doing Souta? I doubt the boogie man came to visit while we were gone."  
  
"Well you never know Kagome, I just want you to be safe you know." he called back.  
  
Rolling her eyes in an exasperated fashion, she pulled out two mugs with snowmen on them from above her head in a rack.  
  
"I know that Souta. You know, I AM twenty-three years old! Now will you come on? I bought some of your favorite hot chocolate at the store, why don't we sit in the kitchen and have a cup for good old times sakes? I hardly ever get to see you any more, and when I do, you're so uptight! Relax bro, let's have some fun!"  
  
"Okay, Kagome."  
  
He smiled as she quickly pulled back her long raven black hair with a srunchie, her pretty blue eyes shining as she began to rumage under the counters for a mixing spoon. Her slender little form made her the perfect candidate for the business she had chosen, she was perfectly proporioned, hips, bust, and all. Souta was very protective of his little sister....and he had good reason to be...if HE ever found out about her.....Souta couldn't bear to think of what would happen to his little sister, the only family he had left in the world since their mother and grandfather had died in that car "accident". He would never forgive HIM for that one.... His thoughts were interupted; however, by the rattling of an old and battered box. Looking up, he smiled as his younger sister held up a battered copy of Milton Bradley's Scrabble, the game they had played at as children.  
  
"So how bout it bro? You up for the challenge?"  
  
Laughing he banished all dark thoughts of....him.....from his mind, and ran over to the large mahogany table like a kid, opening the taped up box as his sister swung the door to the microwave open, and provided the promised hot chocolate...and indeed, it was his favorite kind....Smores!  
  
"Heck yeah Kagome! There's no way you're beating this genius!" he yelled out loud, ecstatic at the thought of his favorite sweet, chocolate. Giggling, Kagome lifted a bag of large marshmallows from underneath her chair and placed them on the table. Souta literally stuck his head in the bag as he reached for marshmallows to put into his hot chocolate.   
  
The two laughed as the cold winter's day grew old, playing Scrabble long into the night. Kagome managed to beat him soundly with the word 'quickly' on the triple word score, with double letter scores underneath. Squealing like the children they used to be, they kicked each other under the table, and soon began to throw marshmallows that Kagome had sitting on the table at each other.  
  
"TAKE THAT SOUTA! AND THAT!" Kagome yelped as she turned her kitchen table over, a bag of Food Lion brand marshmallows with her, along with a bunch of scrabble letters. Rapidly, she began to stuff the letters inside the marshmallows, throwing one at her brother. He caught it in his mouth, and laughing even harder, bit down, only to find a wooden letter inside. Gagging he collapsed on the floor, flopping around like a fish, while his sister howled with laughter from where she hid behind the table. Still throwing marshmallows, Souta began to make an ellaborate speach about his death by a marshmallow and wooden letter.  
  
"OH! You got me! I....I can see the light.....MY TEETH! OH MY JAW! Ah! ROOT CANAL! You're PAYING FOR THIS ONE! I think you cracked my tooth! Damn! Who knew those fricking little pieces could hurt so much!" Yelping, he began to spasm about on the floor, flipping onto his stomach and doing the worm, Kagome in the background with tears streaming down her cheeks from trying not to crack a rib laughing. His dark hair had a gooey marshmallow stuck in it, and his brown eyes were tearing like hers as he continued his deluge. "Oh! SAVE ME!" he began to flop about like a fish out of water, gradually getting closer to the pantry. Immediately Kagome saw what he was doing, and rumaged in a cabinet behind her to pull out her favorite trusty snack, Twizlers.   
  
Leaping up, he once again began to throw marshmallows, soon followed by black eyed peas and a gigantic stuffed teddy bear he had won for Kagome at the arcade that afternoon. (The black eyed peas of course were procured from the nearby pantry.) Kagome made a small sling shot out of a Twizlers Pull and Peel, and began to fling Starburst jellybeans at her brother.   
  
"GOD KAGOME!" he yelled.  
  
She stared at him, shocked from his outburst as he gazed upon her pantry with reverence akin to adoration.  
  
"I thought you were a model! Models aren't supposed to eat this kind of stuff! MAN! All they eat is green beans for lunch, and a pea for dinner! How the heck can you get away with eating Rice Krispies and Cinnamon Toast Crunch?!"  
  
"Fast metabolism?"  
  
"You must have a personal trainer!"  
  
"Are you saying I'm fat?!"  
  
"No, I'm just wondering how you stay the way you are."  
  
"So you're saying I'm fat."  
  
"NO! Kagome, nooooo!"  
  
Neighbors in nearby surrounding apartments rolled their eyes as the two nocturnal elephants went at it again, Kagome beginning to beat her brother with a large Chiquita banana. She squealed in surprise as the banana broke, her brother collapsing with laughter from the odd circumstances. Ignoring him, she grabbed a large squashed and melted Zero bar, and began to ooze it out of one end, pinning him beneath her as she smeared it on him. He began to tickle her, and with a yelp of surprise she leapt in the air and over the table faster than you could say 'scat.'  
  
Souta laughed until his sides felt they were about to burst, and crawled around the back side of the table, sneaking up on Kagome as she peeped out over the top looking for her target. With a yell he tackled her, and the two of them wrestled their way into the living room, ending up lying on the floor at opposite ends of the room, crying from pains in their sides, loud hiccups coming out between the giggles that insued.  
  
Souta smiled at her, so beautiful and serene, without a care in the world. He had never told her what he did for a living, nor was he planning too, it was too dangerous. And yet, although he would probably die tommorow, he loved the fact that he got to be with his sister one last time. A dangerous mission had come up, too dangerous, and he had been assigned the project, but only because of the fact that he knew the enemy they were facing best. After all, Inuyasha had only been his rival for as long as he had been on the force....the two of them had had more run ins than anyone could count, Inuyasha always coming out on the winning end.  
  
After the giggles had subsided, the two popped in the movie Kagome had rented, 'Lilo and Stitch' and settled into her extra large brown leather chair. Smiling, he stroked her hair as she snuggled up against him like she used too, underneath a large spotted safari blanket that matched her couch. She dozed off half way through the movie, a small happy smile on her face, her dreams of her childhood, of her momma, and papa, of jii-san and Souta.....   
  
If Inuyasha were to ever find out about the hidden life behind Souta's facade, about...Kagome. Souta would never forgive himself.  
  
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Unbeknownst to Souta, a pair of golden eyes watched the scene carefully, examining every escape point from the room. So Souta Higurashi, his long time enemy, had a female aquaintance, or rather more than that, so it seemed. And boy was she a looker to boot! Chuckling under his breath his bared primeval fangs and growled at the man who had caused this to happen to him, this abnormality that ostracised him from the outside world. Souta Higurashi would pay.....oh yes....he would pay.......  
  
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A/N: Hi ya'll! This isn't my first fic on ff.net, but it is my first Inuyasha fic. I know the first chappy is kind of choppy and it's pretty short too, but they will get longer. I'm not sure where this fic is going just yet, but I have a makeshift plot figured out in my head, so bare with me until things start to get better. And YES I do know that Souta is the younger brother, but for my fanfiction's sake, his is older. Some of you will also want to know what he does. Well you'll just have to find out won't you? (hehehehe) If any of you are coming to this site to read this from my blog, then you'll know that I'm Lunar Kitty, owner of Glam! Anime Web Graphics, and a chain of other sites all dedicated to animes and video games. The URL to my site if anyone wants to visit is :http://www.geocities.com/anime_glam It's on hiatus right now, but since I have a long weekend off of school this weekend, I'll be getting a new layout up this weekend. Don't forget to R/R! I need some suggestions, stuff you've always wanted to see in an Inuyasha fic, etc, so on and so forth! Thanks for reading, I'll get the next chapter up soon! - Lunar Kitty 


	2. Chapter Two

Souta sighed as he put on his sunglasses, making sure his leather jacket didn't look too perfect. A job on the streets wasn't meant to pretty, or handsome for that matter, he thought, looking at the prostitutes that lined the sidewalk. He had heard that he....that "Inuyasha" was hanging around here these days. He had immediately taken the job, seeing how close it was to his sister's high rise was unbearable. He would not have that, that THING, claim another one of his family member's lives....his....mother...his grandfather. He would not have Kagome join that black list, not while he was alive. Leaning back against a brick wall covered in grafitti, he had closed his eyes and ears to the noises around him, remembering the life he once had had, before that one fight. Before everything had gone wrong.  
  
The syndicate wanted Inuyasha dead or alive...but mostly dead. The genetic mutation was nothing but a freak accident, in fact, many blamed the rash young gunslinger for his own demise, but Inuyasha had placed his blame upon the syndicate. His half-brother Sesshoumaru had abandoned him to die in an alley after a nasty run-in with the cops. Enraged, Inuyasha had tried to attack Sesshoumaru......... to meet the bullet of Souta's gun.   
  
That's right, Souta had been there. In that dark alley way of the shipping yards, blood and gore splattered on the walls of the moldy brick. Inuyasha had been impaled through the stomach by a shot from a well placed cross bow, pinning him to the wall behind him, dropping the priceless Shikon no Tama they had been trying to retrieve. For what reason? Rin had thought it was pretty, and out of selfish indulgence for the one woman in his life, Sesshoumaru had arranged an ambush, one that had been foiled.  
  
American CIA agent Kikyo Tamashi had been on the job. A shape shifter-like human, with skills in every form of martial arts, weilding swords, knives, arrows, and fists. She refused to use guns, her uncanny reflexes allowing her to see bullets as they wizzed towards her, a kind of, how do you put it, sixth sense. She had pinned Inuyasha to the wall, after he turned her own sword against her, almost severing her arm from her body. Sesshoumaru had finished the agent, she had been a thorn in their side for years, and had walked to where Inuyasha hung, prone, eyes glazed with pain as the flesh holding him up began to tear from his body weight upon it. "Brother....help me...." he had hoarsely whispered, the entire ambush squad behind him staring as the two brothers, who had never cared a whim for each other, came face to face, in a face down of deadly proportions.  
  
Shock had run through their faces as Sesshoumaru had turned away, leaving his brother, stepping on his lower legs as he reached down into the dead agent's hand, prying the Shikon no Tama from her still fingers. "Goodbye, Inuyasha." he had croaked cruelly, staring sadisticly at the look of horror on his brother's face. "Let us go." he had whispered to his men, not even looking back at the torn man behind him, black locks dripping down his face, soaked in blood. They had almost left the alley when something animalistic snarled from behind them.  
  
Sesshoumaru had whirled, staring as his brother, lavendar eyes blazing pulled the arrow out of his stomach, drawing his sword as he leapt straight for his brother. Sesshoumaru had been so startled he could hardly pull back, so out of second nature, seeing as he had been assigned to the protection of the syndicate head, Souta had flipped his pistol from its holster, shooting the oncoming beast through the heart. With a thud, he had fallen back into a large crate of boxes, each marked with a venemous 'X'. Oozing green liquid had seeped from cracks in the boxes, filling the wounds that covered the young man's body.  
  
It was called 'miasma' that stuff. It was invented by an ingenious scientist named Naraku some years ago. It's properties had been deemed fatal by the International Food and Drug Admin, so its use had been banned as a pesticide some time before the accident. How it had come to be placed in this very alley, no one knew, but somehow, it had become the painful fate of this one unfortunate soul. One fallen victim to the infamous cruelty of the one person he trusted, his own flesh and blood, Sesshoumaru. Turning his back on his, well, how else would you describe it? Melting....brother, Sesshoumaru had turned and walked out of the alley.  
  
Souta had been given a promotion soon after that. His pay check had increased significantly, and he had been able to pay off his sister's college loan through the name of an "anonymous" benefactor. She would have never asked for help from him, not even if she was living on the streets. She had gone to a private college in France to study design, and the tuition wasn't just chump change. He remembered her ecstatic call to him, telling him the wonderful news that she didn't have to continue working as a waitress to help pay her bills. She was on her way to starting a new career as a model, and had been signed on as a Cover Girl after her first portfolio was sent in. Souta had smiled, happy that she was going to have the life she always dreamed of, the life he wished he could have. It had been the wrong choice to get involved with Kouga and his gang, but now, in this one moment of time, all the blood, battles, and deaths were worth it to him. As long as what he did made her happy...no, them happy, he didn't care what happened.  
  
Then he had gotten the call....his mother and grandfather had just been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit at Tokyo International Hospital. A crazy guy in a black Jaguar had caused them to slam into the guard rail on a curvy road close to the shrine they owned. They had flipped, going off of the road, and skidding into the lanes of oncoming traffic. They had been hit by a large cargo truck, and the car had caught fire. The jag had no tags, and no one had seen who was driving. After filing a report with the police, he had rushed to the hospital to comfort his sister, and to see how his family was doing. He arrived too late. His mother and grandfather had both died, his mother due to a ruptured spleen, his grandfather, loss of blood. The two mangled bodies presented to him in the morgue were hardly recognizable as the people full of life they once were.  
  
Kagome had been inconsolable, and had demanded restitution from the hit-and-run driver who had destroyed what had seemed like a perfect beginning to her illustrious career. Souta had found comfort in his job, avidly seeking this murdered with every ally he could think of. His contacts reported every sighting of any jag that had signs that it had been in an accident, but no driver was found. In fact, some who had seen the accident reported not seeing the driver at all. That it seemed that the car was driving itself.   
  
It was a mystery Souta was determined to solve, but one that seemed impossible to crack.  
  
Then came the phone call. Souta had been alarmed to hear that the agency his sister worked for had begun to receive threatening phone calls, calls that were non-tracable. Alarmed, he had sent some of his own men to be guards for the agency, telling his sister that they were friends of his from college. He had also introduced his sister to Hojo, a powerful business man, who already knew of the syndicate. Hojo had been charmed by his sister, and had immediately moved her to a larger, and nicer appartment complex closer to Hojo's. Reassured of his sister's safety, Souta had continued his search for the caller, and his mother and grandfather's killer.  
  
Then, one night when Souta was walking home from his favorite night haunt with some of his buds from the syndicate, it happened. A black jaguar began to follow them, the tinted windows preventing them from seeing who was inside. Souta had begun to move towards an alley that led to one of the back entrances to one of the many syndicate office buildings in the area, eyeing the car warily. The car had continued on down the street, and relaxing visibly, Souta had turned to go in the alley. Then someone screamed. One of the young girls in the group had been shot by something, and had fallen, blood pouring from a hole in between her eyes. Throwing off his jacket, Souta had pulled two guns from their holsters, and standing back to back with another one of his agents he had looked wildly in all directions. Gunfire was blaring from an unknown source, and his friends were falling to the ground right and left. The entire street was running red with blood, its thick color reminiscent of an expensive wine, one that could not be replaced once it was gone. Ducking into a doorway, a few of his companions and himself had busily set down to reload their weapons, which they had been firing aimlessly in any direction, trying to discover where their oponent was hidden. No one noticed the shadowy figure walking towards them, and they were so busy, that they hardly had time to raise their guns as the figure paused above them.  
  
The moon shone behind him, shadowing his appearance from them, glowing amber eyes piercing their souls. Blood dripped from his hands, hands adorned with vicious claws, each finger popping of its own accord, as muscles strained from attacking. A feral low pitched growl echoing throughout their bodies, a growl that emmanated from the form before them. Ears, pointed, twitching, covered in...fur...peeped through thick matted hair. They were all frozen, staring as the devilish noise became louder. The thing had stepped closer, it's breath warm on their skin as it came into the light above them. And they had frozen in their places.   
  
Their, before them, stood Inuyasha, left in an alley months ago. Stripes crossed his cheeks in various places, and his eyes were pale, blood shot, no longer the livid and vibrant lavendar they once had been. Blood dripped from huge wounds, wounds that seeped with green vapor. Souta remembered shivering as he had sniffed like some sort of wild animal, smirking at the looks of surprise on their faces. He had crouched to their level, chuckling in some sort of demonic manner, his blood spilling at their feet in pools. He had crooked a finger towards Souta, and as if he was under some sort of spell, Souta had crept closer to this hellish nightmare of a human before him, chemical burns covering his skin in large sweeping scars.   
  
Faster than Souta could follow, a clawed hand swept out, closing around his throat in a vice like grip, viciously cutting him off from his life giving air supply. He could feel his neck bruising as the grip increased in its intensity, his face changing from a brilliant red to cold blue. The monster brought its face closer and closer to Souta's, his gagging reflex for air causing the grip to tighten even more. The man before him pushed him back into the glass door behind him, the glass cracking under the immense pressure of Inuyasha's strength.  
  
"Tell my brother...." he whispered, his raspy voice chilling everyone present to the bone, "that I'm back...." and with that he had left, apparently leaving only a note on the ground beside Souta. The list of targets left by Inuyasha had proved a challenge. Only two on the entire list were marked out. The names of Souta's mother and grandfather. Souta had discovered his killer...and it had almost cost him his life. At the bottom of the list was the name of Sesshoumaru's girl, Rin. Sesshoumaru had been livid when he discovered that his brother still lived, and demanded that every place or person listed on the small scrap of paper left beside Souta's half-dead body be searched. Every time, and at every place....they were foiled by his violent schemes, yet there was never a sign of the dog demon to be found, which left Souta to wonder why he had exposed himself so rashly with the list in the first place. It also soon became known that Souta was a target, but not one that was in immediate danger. To discover why, Souta had become adamant in researching every move Inuyasha made, becoming the expert on the dog like human that was now his opponent. Souta was afraid of Inuyasha. And he had good reasons to be so.   
  
Inuyasha soon became meticulous in his plans, never appearing at his own battles, but making sure every one left Souta with some grevious wound, or a death to mourn. Souta was sick of it. Which brings us back to the whore-covered street corner he stood upon.  
  
This was the last mission he would ever go on against Inuyasha. In a last ditch effort to protect what he held most dear, he had agreed to go on a kamikaze, a last chance deal. Either he killed Inuyasha and lived, or did both and died. He fingered the trigger of the small round explosive in his pocket, it's properties large enough to take out the entire street. Smiling, he watched as the car he was tailing pulled into sight around the bend, parking.  
  
Sure enough, out stepped Inuyasha, shades over his eyes, and cut off leather gloves on his hands. He wore a large red fightning kimono, and at his side, his now legendary sword called the Tetsusaiga. Somehow, the metal of the battered sword had been given strange genetic properties by the miasma, and now held the ability to change its shape. Souta stood up tall, and began to walk towards the infamous killer.   
  
He didn't even notice the men sneaking up behind him. Souta didn't even know what hit him.........  
  
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Well that's all for chapter two folks! I hope it gave you a little insight into the whole problem of the story. Next chapter....Kagome and Inuyasha meet. Here's a preview for all of you readers! And please R&R!!!!!  
  
"Who's there?!" Kagome shrieked, her black hair falling in her eyes as she clung to her brother's mutilated hand through the bars of his cell.  
  
"My, my....what have we here?" came a raspy whisper.  
  
Shrinking in fright, Kagome's eyes widened to the size of saucers, trembling, as a monster stepped out from the shadows.........  
  
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	3. Chapter Three

Beast  
  
Chapter 3  
  
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Souta groaned in pain as he opened his eyes. Something wet and sticky was dripping from somewhere above him, beside him, somewhere......he couldn't tell.......his head hurt so badly. He was laying prone on a large cobblestone floor, green ooze gushing from between the stones, puddles of some indiscernible substance pooling up in the gaps where mortar once lay. Once again he tried to open his eyes completely, wincing in pain as the dim light from a barred window above him filtered into... into, whatever he was in.  
  
He tried to move his arms, only to hear the rattling of chains, heavy and cumbersome. Shackles were on his feet, and it looked like he had been dragged down a gravel road by a car. His hands were covered in open abrasions, and his arms looked like spaghetti and meatballs, muscles exposed from shattered flesh, bones protruding in shatters. Gasping in pain, he tried to sit up, only to have more....of the sticky liquid, no, blood pour down from a large gash in his forehead. His dark brown hair was matted with thick clumps of dried blood and his clothes were torn and dirty.  
  
Looking around, he vaguely recognized his surroundings. He had been taken to one of the old syndicate cells, dirty and musty from lack of use. There was no telling what kind of things grew here, or how long he would be imprisoned. What had happened to him? Why was he here? All he could remember was Inuyasha, and then... nothing.  
  
Yelping in pain, he tried to finish the action of sitting up, hoping he could reach the nearest wall to prop himself up against. But once again, he was foiled. His feet were anchored into the ground with large chains, each one encircling his feet. His shoes were torn, and his socks were gone. Each and every one of his toenails had been torn off in some means of cruel torture. Crying out in despair, his thoughts rushed to his sister, at home perhaps? What if.....what if Inuyasha found out about her?! Sobbing, he realized he had failed on the one mission he had set out to accomplish.  
  
Looking up to the small vent of light in the wall above him, he screamed his anguish,  
  
"Kagome...KAGOME!"  
  
Collapsing, he fell on the floor, blood beginning to gush again from his shattered arms. Whimpering in pain, he laid there...darkness falling on his cell. This was the pit of despair.....the hell hole of all hell holes........and Souta suffered, lying there, in pain. Realizing that he had met his end....and his sister would soon meet hers.............  
  
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Kagome sighed in contentment as Hojo opened her door for her, allowing her to step out of the limousine with ease. Smiling at him, she took his offered arm as the two of them made their way into her building. The doorman nodded to them both, and Hojo tipped him profusely for holding the door. Kissing her temple, Hojo escorted her to the elevator, where he pushed her into the plush walls, sitting her on the bench below him as he kissed her exposed neck. Giggling, and quite happy due to the many glasses of champagne she had drank that night, Kagome teased him, trailing her fingers up and down his neck, blowing in his ear.  
  
The two stumbled out of the elevator somewhat disheveled when the bell rang for the eighteenth floor. Laughing, Hojo picked her up and twirled her around, loving the sound of her tinkling laughter in his ear. He set her down gently at her door, smiling in delight at the beautiful angel below him, loving the way the one dimple on her left cheek shone out when she laughed.  
  
"Do you need anything else, my lady?" he whispered.  
  
"I think I'm fine, my lord." she giggled.  
  
He dropped down on one knee, kissing her hand gallantly, watching as she opened her doors and walked in, and never even noticing that they were already ajar. She turned around quickly, rewarding him with the slightest of butterfly kisses.  
  
"Goodbye Kagome. I'll see you tomorrow?"  
  
"Yes Hojo. Same time?"  
  
"Of course. We've got a shoot tomorrow, remember?"  
  
"Yes Hojo, I remember."  
  
"That means you have to look your absolute best baby." he said to her, watching her blush at his pet name for her.  
  
"I will Hojo, I will." she said, a slight laughing tone entering her voice as she shook her long black hair from its large messy bun. "Good night." She blew him a kiss and shut the door, shutting her eyes as she listened to him walk down the hall. She placed a hand to her chest and positively beamed. She had a rich designer boyfriend, and made over forty thousand dollars for every picture that was taken of her. She was popular, she was rich, and to top it all off, she was young AND beautiful. Life couldn't get any better.  
  
Sighing she leafed through the mail she had placed on the kidney shaped coffee table earlier that day. She, once again, threw away another movie script. She might be a model, but that sure as heck didn't mean she could act! Unless they wanted to cast her for an extra, she wasn't going to have anything to do with it. Throwing away another credit card offer, she took a bottle of water out of the ice chest underneath her humongous salt water aquarium, waving hi to one of her clown fish, and sticking her tongue out at a large moray eel. Opening it, she plopped down on the couch and read through an issue of 'Cosmo' that featured her on the front cover, dressed in a low cut black corset shirt with red lacings. A rose was tucked behind one of her ears, and her oriental eyes were shimmering with gold glitter. Large silver hoop earrings dangling from her ears were intertwined with pieces from the silver hair net like piece she had been wearing. It had dropped over her long hair coming down to rest above her eyes, dangling small semi-precious gems. Dragons drooped from the side pieces, falling through the large hoops. Her midriff slightly showed, her belly button sporting a silver and blue hoop stud. Her low slung pants were made of black leather, laced together with red. She had to admit, she was hot.  
  
Looking down at the outfit she wore now, she had to agree that the standard she presented on the magazine was well kept up. Tall lace up dark purple boots with spike heels went up to her thighs, followed by ribbons that laced all the way up under her skirt. Her skirt was mauve purple, sheer silks of different shades giving it a full flower petal look. The bodice of the outfit was loose, long bell sleeves dropping down to her knees, the midriff sheer up to her bust line. From there on up, the shirt became a dark sexy purple, tied with a matching choker-like ensemble around her neck. Earrings with amethyst inserts dangled down to her bare shoulders, their silver color twinkling in the light from her nearby lamp. Her face was painted in exotic designs, her eyes surrounded by globs of gorgeous light pink. The overall effect was absolutely gorgeous.  
  
Giggling, she put down the magazine and reached up to take her earrings off as she turned to walk down her hallway. She walked into her bathroom and turned on the lights, revealing a large sauna like tub with mirrors surrounding it. A large counter area was covered in makeup, and clips from her various shoots. She placed her earrings in a cat shaped holder, and took off her choker, laying it in the same place. Undressing as she went, she walked towards the tub and began to run a hot bath, wiping her hands on a nearby terry cloth towel. Standing in nothing but her boots and undergarments, she reached over to find her bath bubbles, opening the lid and delving into the delicious sent of Bath and Body Work's Cucumber Melon. She turned the bottle over to begin pouring a cap full into the tub. Frowning, she watched as only a small sliver of soap came out from the bottle. Placing the bottle down, she grumpily stood up, walking out into the hall again, and down to her room so she could retrieve another bottle from her stock. She paused, almost swearing she had just seen something out of the corner of her eye. Something black..... She turned, walking cautiously into the living room and looking around. Shaking her head in annoyance, she returned to the hall.  
  
Slightly scared, and in her haste to retrieve her bubbles, she didn't even bother to turn on the lights as she sped down the hall towards her room. Walking straight to her closet she opened the door and reached towards the shelf where her bubbles lay waiting. Just as she had gotten her bubbles, she heard a freakish gurgling sound from behind her. Whirling, she almost screamed as she heard the muffled sound of someone else breathing in the room besides her. Foot steps shuffled towards her, and she backed away quickly, feeling for the switch on the wall that would shed light on the situation before her. Suddenly she tripped over something, and it groaned in pain. Squealing in fear she threw her hand backwards, the bottle of bubbles colliding with the light switch. It was an action she would always regret doing.  
  
Before her, a bloody massacre had been played out. What she had tripped over was a mutilated body, blood gushing from numerous slashes down its back. Another body dangled from the chandelier that hung suspended from her vaulted ceilings, its grotesque bloated features slacking to the sides as blood dripped from its mouth and nose. Screaming she stared at the bloody hand prints that littered the wall, blood dripping and oozing from the ceiling. The gurgling sound came again, and she whirled, seeing Hojo standing there, his arms open, eyes dazed.  
  
"Hojo!" she screamed, throwing herself into his arms "I don't know what happened, these people, these people......." she faded off into silence as she gaped at the huge hole in his skull, exposed brain leaking onto her boots as he toppled on top of her. Screaming in horror, she turned in circles her eyes almost rolling back into her head as she made her way to the nearest door, which happened to be her closet. Opening it, she found a bloody hand hanging from one of her many sets of panty hose. She began to vomit, the overwhelming sent of blood and flesh assaulting her nose. She could vaguely hear water pouring down the hall as the water in her bath tub began to spill over.  
  
Screaming, she ran from the gory scene, slipping in the hallway on the large amounts of water pouring out of her bathroom. She winced in pain as she felt her left ankle snap, her high boots had prevented her ankle from shifting when she fell, resulting in the break. Crawling, sobbing, she squelched her way down the hall, blood washing down her legs as it began to leak from the ceiling above. She made it to her door, reaching up as high as she could to try and reach the ever illusive doorknob, her escape from this bloody nightmare.  
  
Footsteps sounded behind her, splashing in the water that was ever steadily coming towards her. She tried to turn around, but slipped falling face first into the floor, yelping in pain as her ankle twisted more in its already broken position. She reached again for the doorknob as an eerie laugh echoed behind her, its sound echoing off the walls of her apartment as a violent growl. Her fingernails dug into the door as she reached again, whimpering as she felt the vibrations of the footsteps coming closer, and the splashing of the pooling water behind her, blood mixing with the water around her.  
  
Screaming for help, she began to beat on the door, the foot steps slowing to a halt as heavy breath began to heat her neck. "Going somewhere baby?" it whispered, licking her ear. Kagome froze as the heavy handed beast began to reach it's hands around her neck. Whimpering in fear, her face still in the water, Kagome struggled against him as the hands tightened, cutting off her air supply. Gasping for breath, she began to turn red, and then blue as the hands continued their murderous onslaught on her young throat. Her eyes began to glaze over as she lost consciousness, and then, no more.  
  
=============================  
  
You have NO IDEA how close I was to stopping there!  
  
But I know I would've gotten heck for it, so I continued.  
  
=============================  
  
"We've got her, Inuyasha!" Ginta exclaimed as he opened the doors to the large black stretch limo. "Inuya...." his cries were cut off abruptly as he and the burden he carried in his arms were unmercifully dragged into the expensive vehicle, Ginta thrashing in terror as claws began to cut into the sides of his neck, drifting precariously close to his jugular.  
  
A face crept out of the darkness inside so quickly that Ginta ceased his struggles prematurely, allowing the creature full access to his throat. Whimpering in fear, Ginta slowly blinked his large eyes, their green structure clashing with the red color of his face.  
  
As abruptly as he was grabbed, he was thrown, his burden relieved of him in one fell motion. The girl was laid down carefully as with a quick back flip, his master effectively shoved his face into the tinted back window of the limo. "Do you mind?!" a voice hissed viciously. Ginta squeaked as he was shoved into the floor underneath the human-like foot of his master, the monstrous proportions of the owner of his very existence coming into view as he bent completely in half, his features becoming more and more defined in the murky darkness of the interior of the vehicle. "You just practically blurted out to the ENTIRE street that we were kidnapping her! Did anyone ever teach you any couth, any sublime interest in keeping this entire project a secret?! Do you want to blow my cover as a business man? I've got to keep a low profile! I know Higurashi is now our prisoner, but that does NOT give us the ability to go SCREAMING in the streets about how nicely we completed a mass murder and kidnapping! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!"  
  
Ginta whimpered a sound that remarkably resembled a squeak, which Inuyasha mercifully took as a yes. This project had gone well, and he did not want to alert Sesshoumaru of his whereabouts. His brother was too interested in the properties of the sword he now called "Tetsusaiga" and he would do anything to get it. Sesshoumaru in turn had betrayed one of his most loyal compadres, Souta Higurashi. Higurashi would never see the light of another day after tomorrow; depending on the cooperation of the girl...yes...the girl...  
  
Shaking thoughts of his beautiful captive from his mind, he walked towards the front of the limo, leaving a bruised and shaken Ginta behind him. With a snarl he rapped on the window keeping the driver out of his view. With a whoosh, the window dropped, and a small, twitchy little man appeared in his view.  
  
"Yes, Inuyasha?"  
  
With a growl of annoyance, Inuyasha turned great golden eyes upon the man, pupils contracting as they focused solely on him.  
  
"Drive on, Myouga."  
  
=============================  
  
Two large wooden doors adorned with a large gold dragon shimmered in the moonlight sifting through tapestry covered windows, the large ornate door handles made of melted gold in the shape of flames. The eyes of the dragon were made with large elaborately crafted and cut rubies with a sapphire set in the center. The entire dragon was covered in beaten jade, placed on so thin the gold shown through, moonlight rainbows shining on the many walls of the surrounding corridors, their dark cherry hardwood shining with elegance.  
  
Large silk curtains hung over the windows above, falling over a hundred feet from the cathedral ceilings to the floor. Flying buttresses adorned with vicious gargoyles doing an endless sentry duty over the halls of their might home, sentries that would never say a word. Not even about a young black haired beauty who limped through those doors, a long vibrant red dress adorning her figure, dragons leaping, flames charging over the soft fabric. Cautiously, she approached the edge of her range of vision, carefully looking in both directions. Her left leg was twisted oddly, its swollen edge protruding from the bottom of the gown. This girl was our abducted, Kagome Higurashi. She did not know who had changed her clothes. All she knew was that she had to get out of this place. come hell or high water!  
  
Once she was sure the coast was clear, she began to hobble as fast as she could down the hall, her slight whimpers of pain echoing throughout the large building. She had made sure to shut her door, but was quite sure that her captors would hunt after her as soon as she was discovered missing. Unsure of her whereabouts, she whirled down the nearest flight of steps, dragging her useless leg behind her as she tried not to slip on the moldy surface. She had descended what must have been over a hundred steps at a slow crawl as she desperately tried to find a way out of this infinite labyrinth.  
  
Vaguely, she could hear the sounds in the corridors above and around her, and listening she heard what must have been her own doors slammed open. Voices began to shout, and she heard footsteps descending on the stairs behind her. Stumbling, she fell, tumbling down the vast number of stairs, trying not to cry out as her already punished body was put to one of the most brutal beatings of its life.  
  
When she reached the bottom, her model's figure was torn to shreds, cuts seeping blood onto the cold coble stones below her. Hearing the footsteps echoing at an even quicker cadence, she dragged her body towards something that only the most desperate person would see. Not even the guards who patrolled the corridor knew of its existence. A door.  
  
This door was covered in thick mold, its rusty handle barely protruding from the wall, and not enough for good traction. Dragging her beaten self towards the exit, she could have screamed as De Ja Vu bit her in the butt again. Once more, her ankle prohibited her from reaching the only means to escape the situation, but this time, Kagome was in luck.  
  
Her desperate, searching fingers found a chain linked around the door handle, disguised well against the dark floor due to its coloring. She grabbed it fiercely, pulling her tiny body upright as she reached for the handle, wrenching it open and disappearing into the depths on the other side. The heavy door shut quickly, slamming her into darkness, wet things dripping all around her, startling her.  
  
As her eyes adjusted, she panicked. All around her were bones and rotting bodies, their decomposing stench filling the rotting air, permeating it with its nauseating fumes. Gagging silently, she tentatively crawled further into her hiding place, its aura of death slightly un-nerving her. The darkness would not allow her to see the boundaries of the chamber she now resided in, so she never saw the gaping hole before her, barred and grim. Once again, Kagome reached forward, her sense of touch the only thing that could guide her in the inky blackness of her tomb.  
  
She toppled forward as her hand slid through the slimy mouth of an opening, screeching in fright as her hand encountered something solid in the darkness. Her arm was caught, hung in between the bars of a large box like opening, her circulation being cut off as she desperately tried to retrieve her wayward limb from its precarious position.  
  
=========================  
  
Souta groaned as he heard a scrambling noise above him. Loud and raucous, it was the sound of someone trying to get away from something. He opened his blood shot eyes from his now rotting body and stared as bright eyes illuminated the darkness before him, an arm was hanging from an opening above, elaborate traces of fabric gracing its feminine proportions. Some of the pieces were torn, and a substantial gash was visible on the hand of the arm.  
  
The noise was someone above him trying to retrieve their arm from the gap in between the cell bars, the same ones that had once given an eerie glow to the death chamber of his soul. A panicked screech came from the above said person, sobbing as they yanked and pulled at the bars, their worried thrashings probably alerting the nether-things that still lived in the depths of the cells around him, species of creatures long forgotten, who would take this new comer as a snack, desperately needed for their insatiable stomachs.  
  
A flash of light echoed throughout the cell doors, as the guards made their rounds for the night, and Souta stared, as the face above him, tear stained and dirty was illuminated in the darkness, his almost dead eyes tearing as he saw the face of his most dear companion, his sister Kagome.  
  
=========================  
  
The light went away as fast as it had come, the frightened girl wary of the darkness it once again exposed her too. As she groped her way back upwards towards the bars, striving to get her hand out of its trap, something grabbed onto her hand. Screaming in fright, she yanked backwards, screaming again when a yell came from the hole below her. What had grabbed her was crusty, and dripping of a wet substance that was slightly sticky. As she dug her fingernails into the foreign object she was startled to hear the voice of her brother echo from the depths below her, like a spirit from the realm beyond, returning to warn of some ominous future.  
  
"Kag...Kagome... " it rattled, death evident in its very tone.  
  
"Sou...SOUTA?!" she clamored, tears dripping from her eyes and down her face as she clung tightly to the arm below her, sobbing as she looked at the poor boy. He was covered in blood, his eyes half opened, lying in a pool of his own bodily secretions and fluids. Pus poured from the arm she held, the pressure she placed on it causing a large abscess in his exposed flesh to pop.  
  
Crying out in pain, Souta cried too as he saw that his sister, his beloved family member, was still alive, still safe, despite the bruises circling her thin neck, and the scratches and scrapes that gored her once flawless skin. "Why? How? Are you okay?" he croaked, worries lifted off of his young shoulders as he saw that his sister was indeed alive, and somewhat safe.  
  
"I don't know, I woke up here! Souta, oh Souta it was awful! Hojo...he, he... "she sobbed, the tears from her cerulean eyes so great that they began to pool around his immobile feet, his sideways-cocked head watching her from a position of utmost vulnerability. Souta began to coo soft condolences in her direction, the sound of her musical voice already refreshing his tired ears, ears that had been ready to give up on hearing ever again. But now...now he had her once more. His baby angel had come back to him.  
  
He listened to her sob, and suddenly he realized that this was fate! That he must warn her of her impending brush with Inuyasha, coughing bile out of his sore throat he began to open his mouth as she clung onto his hand, her desperate silent cry for help and protection giving him the strength to resist this torture once more. He had opened his mouth, ready to tell her everything, when it happened.  
  
The door that Kagome had opened earlier swung open violently, a shadowed figure dashing into the room as the door swung shut, its form barely visible in the shadowy light of the doorway. It quickly faded into nothing as Kagome clung tightly to her brother's arm her breathing becoming the only noise in the room, echoing off of the walls as she panted, the exertion of dragging her torn body into this room, and the elation she felt over finding her brother, although he seemed to be on death's door, had used up the last reserves of her ever dwindling strength.  
  
Something swooshed behind her, touching her backside lightly as she squeezed her eyes tightly shut, in avoidance to the realities that surrounded her. It bumped her again, like a shark, testing out the taste of an unknown source of food, causing her to yelp.  
  
"Who's there?!" Kagome shrieked, her black hair falling in her eyes as she clung to her brother's mutilated hand through the bars of his cell.  
  
"My, my...what have we here?" came a raspy whisper.  
  
Shrinking in fright, Kagome's eyes widened to the size of saucers, trembling, as a monster stepped out from the shadows. Claws hung unsheathed from slender fingers, warped with chemical burns, slitted golden eyes shining at her in the darkness, the entire form of the creature swathed in the elegant red she had found in the chamber she had awoken in earlier. It crept down to her level, the clawed hand grabbing her chin, holding it still as she was examined by it, long silver tresses falling onto her barely clad bosom, the thin red material hardly the exemplary fabric of the modest. Teeth protruded from its mouth as it came closer to her, a sharp nose coming into sight, stripes of burgundy streaking its cheeks, the eyes staring her down almost hungrily.  
  
She was frozen, still clinging with some desperate sixth sense to her older brother's hand, enjoying the minimum comfort she found in his beaten body, even though he could no longer protect her. "Who...Who are you?" she whispered, tears still dripping down her cheeks in a silent mantra of despair.  
  
"I am Inuyasha, master of this place." came the sinister reply, like death, calling for its next victim.  
  
"Then why is my brother imprisoned here?" she gasped, as his hands began to drift from her neck downwards, her caught arm preventing her from running, but she wouldn't have tried to get away anyways.  
  
"Your brother?" he continued, ears protruding from the top of his skull in an interested manner, catching her gaze, keeping her preoccupied as his hands continued their laborious run down her sides, distracting her. "Let's just say your brother owes me." he growled, the vibration rocking the floor below her in its intensity, bones crashing down from above and around them, as the man, wait, no the animal, before her raised its hackles like a dog, its nose sniffing for the rotting stench of his prisoner.  
  
"Owes you?" she chattered, the cold air of the dungeon giving her goose bumps, the thin, sheer fabric of the dress barely allowing her room to breath, much less warmth.  
  
"Yes, that's why he's here wench!" he snarled, demonic red creeping into the amber eyes that now lingered on the hole where her arm resided. "In fact, I believe he has lived long enough." he chuckled, breath steaming from his face as he drew a large sword from a sheath on his back, the glow the sword gave off reverberating off the walls as she stared in awe. He brought the sword down in an arc, aiming directly for the cell below her, regardless of whether he took her with it or not. Just as the sword neared the floor, its large body swirling with clouds of blue, she screamed.  
  
Inuyasha froze, teeth glinting off of his gums as he turned, open mouthed at the audacity of the bitch before him. His hand raising backwards as he unsheathed his claws to their full extent to strike her, his arm whistling as he slammed it towards her. She threw up her tiny right hand, the one that was loose, to block it, screaming as he broke her fragile arm. Sobbing as she fell into a broken heap.  
  
"No...." she cried "You mustn't! Please don't hurt him anymore!" she wailed, the pain throbbing throughout her body, joining the pain of her ankle, her cries echoing in the dungeon, bouncing off the walls, eerily making it sound as if the countless dead bodies had returned to life, screaming their endless anguish to their killers. Inuyasha froze, staring angrily at the girl, this girl, sobbing before him, this girl who was broken .He turned, swearing, sheathing his sword as he began to walk away from her, leaving her to rot in the same prison with her brother, a useless bitch with two broken limbs, and one jammed in a pair of old rusty bars.  
  
He opened the door, silhouetted against the dim light from the hall, reaching for the lever to pull it shut when she cried out for him. "Inuyasha!" it came, soft and yet loud in the stillness, as death once again began to befall her brother below her, his one hope for escape, his lovely flower blossom of a sister had been hurt. He knew there was a good possibility that they would never leave this place alive and he could never forgive himself for her death here as well as his.  
  
He would never know why he replied, perhaps the fates were once again returning to their wheels, snipping at wires and strings to fulfill the worldly balance of life. "What?" he said, coming out as a growl as he turned again to look at the forlorn figure behind him, gore surrounding the body he had told a servant to clothe earlier in one of the finest robes available for any woman in his compound.  
  
She looked up at him, the blue eyes shining with a crystalline like liquid, rolling down her cheeks in streams as she gasped in pain. "Please...please my brother is sick, he is dying! You MONSTER! You can not leave him here!" she cried.  
  
"And why not? You have nothing to offer me wench. You have two broken limbs, and after lying in these bodies for god knows how long you stink. If you had just stayed put, everything would have worked out in your favor." he turned again, his large back filling the narrow doorway, muscles protruding from his arms as he made to shut the door again.  
  
Wrenching her left arm violently, she managed to retrieve it from its trap, the gaping bars, leaving her dying brother below as she crawled towards the beast before her. "Wait......." she called again, her black hair covering her exposed shoulders, blood dripping from a small gash above her eyebrow "Take...take me instead."  
  
"Perfect..." Inuyasha growled.  
  
======================  
  
Uh oh! Kagome made a boo boo? Maybe, maybe not! There's no telling what's gonna happen next in Beast! Thank ya'll so much for the wonderful reviews I've gotten so far. I'm open to all suggestions, but no flames please, unless you're ready to get flamed back, lol. Trust me, I'm writing far better than I feel right now. I have the worst cough/runny nose/pounding head ache/fever and I'm gonna stay home from school tomorrow with my me maw. It's taken me almost a week to write this chapter...and it's been hard! I had to write over certain parts and take other parts out. It should be longer than the previous two chapters, at least I think it is.  
  
I'm also thinking about writing an Inuyasha/Kagome fic based on the movie Sleepless in Seattle. I saw that today on the Superstation as I lay in my mom's gigantic bed with my cats, Booger and Cody, a bottle of water, and a giant bag of the new flavor of Hall's, non-mentholated cough drops. I love my cats, lol (wait, it hurts to laugh....shoot). Well I gotta go, here's your preview for next time.  
  
Revised on 5/6/2004 :P 


	4. Chapter Four

Beast Chapter 4   
ATTENTION PLEASE!

THIS CHAPTER IS REVISED (Feb. 2nd, 2005) FROM THE ORIGINAL VERSION OF BEAST. IT MAY NOT FIT WITH CHAPTERS 5-14, WHICH WILL BE REVISED AS CHAPTERS 1-4 HAVE. PLEASE BE PATIENT AS THE OTHER CHAPTERS ARE REPAIRED.

THANK YOU FOR READING - LUNAR KITTY

"No! Ka...Kagome!" Souta whispered, shock and horror evident on his face as his stared at his younger sister, who had just proved herself a heroine in his eyes, at the cost of her own freedom.

Inuyasha stared in awe at the girl behind him, cuts crusted with blood, rotting flesh from the multiple forgotten souls left to decompose, devoid of mourners, in the damp and dark hanging on her dress, bones surrounding her feet. Her eyes seemed to sink in her head as she sobbed, her hair, matted and greasy slung over one shoulder, cradling her right arm, the bones crooked at an odd angle as they almost protruded from her pale and fair skin, yet she was begging to give up her life for her brother?

How was it possible? That someone could actually…love? Was it possible? Emotions ran across his face as he stared at her, broken, despairing, giving everything that she was, everything she had left for her brother. Something Sesshoumaru would never even fathom! Hell, it was something he himself would never have done.

This groveling of hers sickened him. She was pathetic. He had never seen anyone beg him for anything, save those who pleaded as they died at his feet. He had no mercy for those who did not have the fortitude to die with courage. This girl however, was intriguing. She was brave, and daring. She would give up her life for that of her brother, the one who should be begging for Inuyasha to release her. Instead, he lay in a hole in his own filth, wallowing in his own misery, too cowardly to save his own skin. Her pale blue eyes met his, and the fear he saw radiating them began to permeate the room with its nauseating smell. Lifting up his nose, he began to growl, causing a tear to slide down her face. A small whimper broke from her lips, and he let out a snarling bark, frightening her into silence as he began to speak.

"Fine then wench. I'll grant this request of yours, but on one condition." he snapped.

She made a choking sound and his ears flickered forward, his nose scenting the air as he monitored her emotions through her essence. Her movements were now jerky, she had lost quite a bit of blood. Her arm moved, and she became emotional, tears dropping from her face onto the wounded appendage. He expected her to sob in terror at the prospects running through her mind at what his condition might be, but instead, she lifted her head, eyes shining with hoped, and smiled at him.

Her breathless voice then choked out a solemn question as she began to shiver from the cold and pain shooting through her body.

"What is your condition? I will do anything for my brother."

Inuyasha lifted his ears slightly. He had expected an emotional outburst, and instead had gotten a breathy sigh. The girl must have been running out of strength. The girl was not only injured in her arm where he had hit her, she was in too much pain for that. He allowed his lip to curl up, fangs glistening in the darkness as he watched her body language for any sign of resistance.

As he listened, he began to hear an abnormal sound coming from the pulse of the girl's upper leg. The smell of blood was fresh and hot, it's wet sloshing coinsiding with the pulse of her artery. Had she unknowingly ruptured something? He leapt forward, startling her into a fetal position as she tried to slink away from him. He jerked her by her good arm to where he now crouched, and used his claws to rip the hem of her dress all the way up to her thigh.

She gasped, and her cheeks turned violently red as he pulled her broken leg away from her body, his ear leaning down to get a better idea of where the injury was located. His breath hit her leg, sending tingles up and down her spine as he located a large purplish bruise spreading across her skin. Growling, he realized that she had torn her artery on the inside of her leg, and was now hemorrhaging. He quickly jerked a hair tie off of a corpse nearby him, and began to slide it on her leg from her ankle up to her hip.

Kagome blushed a violent red as his hands slid up her leg, claws tickling the sides. She had never been in such a provocative position before, and if she hadn't been in so much pain, and had been staring at her now dead lover Hojo, she would have thought it terribly romantic.

Inuyasha raised an eyebrow as her scent changed from something mildly weak and fearful, to something with an exotic spice added in. To be sure she wasn't being turned on by him sliding a hair tie up her leg? He laughed out loud at the thought. Maybe he could have a little more fun with this one than he had first imagined.

"My request is simple." He rumbled, as his hands traced patterns on her skin. Her pained yet heated eyes stared at his hands, and a tiny gasp was released from her mouth as he finished securing the hair tie around her leg. "You, Ms. Higurashi" he purred, "Will stay here in my house until the day you die."

"No!" She gasped, and tried to jerk out of the tentative hold his arms had on her leg. Inuyasha growled, his hand reaching out to catch her chin in his hand, his eyes dangerously slanted as he leaned in close to her face, breath hitting her tear streaked cheeks as his tongue slid out to lick them away, curling around her ear sensuously. "Now, now love." He chuckled, "It's not that bad."

Souta growled from below as he saw Inuyasha slide his arm around Kagome's waist and haul her in towards his body. He tried in vain to gain enough upper body strength to push himself off the floor, but only gained himself another shot of racking pain. Inuyasha laughed out loud as he slid towards the grate like a viper, pulling Kagome with him. Kagome gasped as she stared into her brother's eyes, tears forming again as Inuyasha reached down with one arm and bodily ripped the hellhole open, yanking her brother up by the chain that bound him to the wall. He tossed him atop another set of bodies. Kagome thrashed in his arms, and bit into his skin with her mouth, surprising him into letting her go. She crawled towards her brother as fast as she could, though it only agitated her wounds more. When she reached him, his eyes were shut, his breathing shallow. She leaned down to kiss him on the cheek, only to be snatched away by her demonic captor once again.

"LET ME GO!" she screamed. "PLEASE, AT LEAST LET ME…"

"At least let you what, wench? Get more attached to big brother? HAH! You're living in the real world now princess."

He hurled her down upon a pile of rags nearby, and pressed a button on his waist band. Ninja like guards slid into the dungeon with the precision of a surgeon's knife. Guns trained intently on the barely breathing corpse lying on the ground in the middle of the room. The wore a distinctive fang like symbol, crossing through the heart of a large, masked dragon. They had no true uniform. Each seemed to have created his own lethal get-up with bits and pieces collected from bloody battlegrounds.

One of the guards stepped towards Inuyasha, loosening the helmet that covered his eyes and nose. His blue eyes were wide, dilating as he tried to draw in light. Dried blood stained his cheek, and his black hair was sweaty, and pulled into a pony tail. He wore the skin of a wolf around his waist, and its paws and claws covered his arms as guards of fur. His boots were the same, made of wolf hide leather, a howling beast of the same make hanging from his neck on a pendant, its jade eyes almost hypnotic as it swung back and forth upon the chain. A tatoo of the Norse god Fenris trailed from his neck down onto his wrists, which were covered with leather, finger-less gloves. He lightly saluted Inuyasha, and made a mocking bow towards the shivering heap that was Kagome. She turned in shock. Something about the man before her frightened her. More than she could imagine.When he spoke, Kagome knew.

"You called, Inuyasha-sama?"

It was him. The man from her apartment! The one who had killed those people, and Hojo! She shivered in terror as that evil tone came back into being, the nightmare of a reality her world had been transformed into darkening as the devil stepped in, overshadowing the vicious flames of the man-beast Inuyasha, who she had only determined to be hell, for he now owned her life. This man however, was a monster.

Inuyasha noticed her fear, smelling it as it began to permeate the room, in turn, making some of the soldiers in the ranks began to get goose bumps. Perhaps Kouga had done too much? He had only asked that she be brought to him relatively unharmed, which, obviously, had not happened, seeing as now that he gave her a once over, her deformed ankle came into view. Kouga had had a little too much fun.

He wasn't quite sure where he had found Kouga. A hired mercenary, he had caught him trying to assassinate someone at Toshiba Park near the center of Tokyo, and that someone had been his prey. The girl was a mole in Sesshoumaru's organization, one of the best he had in fact. He believed Kouga had been hired by his brother, or someone who worked for him to dispose of the young, pretty thing.

He had soon discovered that Kouga was more than he appeared to be. He was a serial killer, one that had never been caught. The cases and files on him were so terrifying and bloody that they had filing cabinets all to themselves. He enjoyed pain, and had his Ph. D. in psychology, making him an even more violent and hard to unseat opponent. He knew how to get inside your head, and he knew how to stay there. His victims had all been people who had shunned him at some point and time before. Including his own family, murdered and burned in a pile of leaves in his family home. Kouga was a ruthless bastard.

Inuyasha had only kept Kouga because he reminded him of himself. Quick, sharp, and strong, they thought on the exact same wave length. Most of the time, that is. After their initial confrontation, the two had ended up fighting in a deadly battle, soon realizing the strength they could possess if they worked together. Inuyasha and Kouga were wary of each other, two alpha males in their prime, equal in all aspects of strength and cunning, both very deadly. Kouga's only flaw was his tendency to rely upon his weapons without a fault. Whereas Inuyasha favored carrying his faithful sword, Kouga was laden down with ropes, daggers, knives, throwing stars, the works. Each weapon was tipped with poison, so if his prey escaped, the poor soul would be ripped apart from the inside out in a series of enzyme break downs involving the heart, sometimes the brain, gradually causing insanity, leaving the being to wander in circles in the dark. Wandering until their tracker, the Jack the Ripper of the twenty-first century captured them again, embracing them in the folds of a black cloak...a dagger piercing their sides, backs, and necks. Kouga loved to kill.

"Yes, Kouga" Inuyasha replied.

"I would like you to, release, this man." he inwardly cringed at the aspect of releasing Souta, despite the good chance he would not survive his injuries. He was too difficult of an opponent to unseat again, and was thinking of having Kouga dispose of him outside somewhere dark and dank, leaving his body for the stray dogs Kouga used merely for the destruction of evidence. Dogs he kept in dark pits, dogs that tore the weakest members of their hell-like society into shreds, gulping them down with no feeling at all. They would eat him alive. He laughed slightly at the thought, and Kouga smirked, barely raising an eyebrow at the sublime request Inuyasha was making. 'The dogs was it? They would eat well tonight', he thought, a smile playing on to his face.

He turned his head to glance towards Souta, and grimaced as soon as the shadow cloaked his face from Inuyasha's view. This two-way life was going to kill him someday. He growled in resolution and walked forward, grabbing the chains in a violent manner, Souta's body jerking off the ground like a marionet with tangled strings. Twenty-four hours of gloom, of fright. He turned to glance at the girl prone on the ground nearby. She almost screamed as he turned to look at her, his blue eyes piercing her, Inuyasha making no move to stop him from tormenting her.

He crept closer, and the girl shifted backwards, tears running down her face as she tried to move away from the advancing menace, Souta yelped in pain as he was dragged over the sharp bits on the floor, over bodies, more bacteria beginning to colonize his stretched and dying veins. "Hello" he breathed in her face as he crouched over her. Placing his foot on her broken ankle, he leaned in close enough to nip her on the nose, causing a whimper to creep from between her tightly clenched teeth. "You know, you ought to have that looked at." he said, stepping on it in full, her shriek of pain a chord of pleasure to his jaded ears. Kouga turned, nodding to the men. In an instant they disappeared, Souta going with them. Darkness once again surrounded Kagome, and tears ran down her face.

She was trying to sit up when she heard something move. Of course, he had not left. He was still here. Panic began to override her senses as she realized that she must keep her part of the deal, that she now belonged to him. Would he leave her here? Would he? Could he be that cruel? She shook her head, trying to rid herself of the thoughts echoing through her head. Footsteps turned her way, and hands reached down towards her. Flinching back she screamed as they lifted her roughly into the air. Her ankle swinging loosely in a manner it was not meant to, her arm lopsided across her chest. "What are you doing?" she gasped, pain searing throughout her body, all of it stemming from her ankle. She fought back as best she could, trying to wrest herself from his gradually tightening hold.

"What! You want to stay in the dungeon bitch?" her captor hissed, his long silver hair falling into her face as he carried her to the door, slamming it open with his foot, semi-warm air breathing life into her blue features. "No" she stammered, the warm air assaulting her lungs, her leg throbbing even more as his rough gait rocked it back into her body, slamming it painfully, making her wince in agony. He began to pace towards the stairs she had previously fallen down, tears beginning to run down her face as with every step her leg felt like it was going to fall off. She hardly noticed the rich inlay on the walls, her face echoing back in multiple directions due to light mirrors reflecting off of silver and gold, rubies and other precious stones flickering gently in the light. She closed her eyes from the pain, barely even acknowledging the existence of her captor as he carried her almost limp form. She didn't even notice when they reached the chamber she had previously been housed in, the dragon covered gilded doors glinting in the dim light.

She almost screamed as he kicked the beautiful doors open, her leg once again jarring painfully against his side. The room Kagome had been imprisoned in earlier exploding into view with its vibrant colors and rich fabrics, couches, and elaborate art, all of this strewn throughout the room as if it was trash, a mural painted on the ceiling of a dragon assaulting a small rural town, flames erupting in colors so real that it looked as if the entire room was getting ready to crash down around their heads in an inferno of hellish flame... luxurious in its damnable beauty.

Inuyasha snarled as he looked at the room, hoping it was satisfactory enough for a bitching wench. He would have kept her in the dungeon if he'd had it his way, but Miroku and Sango had thrown a fit at the very suggestion. He would have them see to the girl later. He couldn't have a woman in his possession handicapped by such injuries. How would any of them ever keep up with the demanding rigors of working for a syndicate?

Yes, many of Inuyasha's workers were his captives. People forced into a line of work by unfortunate circumstances. It was standard procedure within the syndicate. Though practically unheard of in the outside world, bereft of the intricacies of bargaining for lives and enslavement, deals here were cut on a chopping block, with no going back. All of them, permanent, all of them, illegal. Yes, everything about the syndicates was illegal. They were nothing but gangs that had grown with power as large corporations discovered the backwards ways of making money. Assassinations, weapons, drugs ran the day. All of them the key to get what you wanted. Souta had been drawn in by that very fact. The ability to provide for Kagome had tempted him into signing into the devil's book, whereas Inuyasha had cut his first teeth on the handle of a gun, a swordsman at the mere age of two. Toddler ways turning into those of a violent child abused and slandered. Inuyasha had never learned love, not even enough to love his own family. He had never cared, and he never would.

He tossed her onto the bed, its covers still mussed from where she had lain what felt like an eternity before, but in reality was only an hour. She whimpered as she curled into a fetal position, tears streaming down her face as she cradled her leg. Her captor merely shrugging in annoyance as he yanked her into a seated position, ignoring her yelp of pain and anger as she began to struggle against his massive strength. He clutched her broken wrist violently, snarling at her like a rabid animal, her pitiful cries driving his sensitive ears crazy, her reach into the decibel levels making him pin them back in any way to avoid the sound. "Would you SHUT UP ALREADY?" He hissed, shaking her for good measure, her sobs abruptly stopping as she stared at him, red rimmed and blood shot eyes freezing as she saw how close this murderous man was to her, his face mere inches from her, long shining fangs protruding from his mouth as he growled, the low sound echoing throughout his body, reminiscent of the sound of a cat's purr, just, scarier. It was hard to describe, but it made her think of something that you would hear a cat resurrected from the depths of his backyard grave utter in your wildest nightmares.

She shuddered against him, wondering what to reply to this person, this person who had taken everything she had ever known from her. He had probably sent that Kouga fellow to her home as well. How could anyone even hold a conversation with someone who had done such things! She struggled again, but couldn't muster the strength to even shift his well muscled arms. She finally relaxed, devoid of emotion, her face falling onto his chest as she began to cry hot tears of despair.

Inuyasha stared, puzzled at the girl. She was like hot and cold. Her emotions switching from calm to devilishly quick in instants, like a crocodile in a net, doing its well known death roll maneuver to try to outwit its captor. However feeble she seemed, he was sure that she would be a formidable opponent when in full health. In any circumstance, the girl's sobbing was annoying. And all annoyances needed to be stopped. Smirking, he raised his hand behind her head, bringing it down upon her neck, watching in some sort of sick satisfaction as her struggles ceased, as she fell into the black ecstasy of darkness, away from the pain of the cold world.

It was so easy to just pass it all of as nothing more than a bad dream.

(ORIGINAL A/N)Okay, so we didn't get to the fate of Souta in this chapter! Buuuuutttt...I did finish it (FINALLY) so please R/R and tell me what you think. Action will pick up soon. I'm not quite sure where the plot is going from here. Suggestions are welcome, but no flames please, unless you want to be flamed back! Well I've gotta go study for a biology test tomorrow, so until the next chapter! Oh yeah, I don't know why, but the format makes this story like, really short on the screen, but in reality it's like ten pages on Microsoft Word. Weird huh? Just thought I'd mention that... C Ya Later - LK

(A/N FEBRUARY 3rd, 2005)

Alrighty folks, revision done on chapter four. You could go ahead and read the rest if you wish, as I didn't change it to the point that it won't make since when combined with the other chapters. However, you will notice some discrepancies in chapters 6-9ish. They get better as the numbers go into the two digits. I got a little off track plot wise so I'm trying to repair this and turn it into an easier story to follow. Forgive the late late late late late update on this story, school's been hell this year! Also, I had this in Microsoft Works Word Processor and it wouldn't upload to so I had to redo it in notepad because my word doesn't work, so if you see any funny little squares in there, it's from file type transfer mess up crap. LOL, until I write again- LK

P.S. I've got an awesome Inu story almost finished called "High Hurdles" should be debuting soon, along with an Immortal Rain story called "When it Rains, it Pours" it will be the first of its kind! How exciting- LK


	5. Chapter 5 aka chp 5 pt 1

Beast Chapter 5  
  
Kagome groaned in pain as she opened her eyes. Her foot was THROBBING, and her ARM! Good god, what was wrong with her? She squinted as faceted lights of many colors flitted over her countenance, their source a large crystaline chandelier dangling above her face. She lay in a humongous canopy bed, its four posters made of ornate black stone that glistened eeriely in the multi-colored light. Soft silk covered her body in the form of a gorgeous dress that gleamed in many colors of red, covered in sheer oranges and yellows. Someone had dyed her hair, red streaks falling gently in her face, intertwining with her original ebony locks.  
  
On her arm, a pale mauve colored cast covered the obscene break that her captor had caused her. The cast had then been covered in the same soft silk of her dress. Her foot was also bandaged in the same way. She could hear the tinkling of jewelry as she tried to sit up, her arms wrapped in large twisting gold bands with dogs' heads on them. Her ears were almost drooping from the weight of their heavy burdon, large luxiourious rubies that dangling, suspended from silver, dropping all the way to her collar bones. A large heavy choker adorned with the same jewel dangled into the dangerously low neckline of her dress, which exposed her ample cleavage.  
  
Her surroundings had once again changed. The gilt gold room of dragons that had previously housed her dangerously weak form no longer imprisoned her. Now a room of silver and black surrounded her, heavy draperies dropping to the floor from the floor to the ceiling, which had to have been at least a hundred feet. Stain glass windows vied for position with huge glass panes, their immense lengths bringing evening light into the room. Heavy snow fall fell in torrents outside, beautiful snowflakes that were free to do as they pleased...a tear ran down her face as she stared, would she ever be free again? She doubted it. And her brother.......what had happened to him? Was his freedom enough to satiate her hunger to be able to leave her golden cage....this castle of a prison she had sentenced herself to.....her existence now tainted by the fact that she could no longer even breath if she was told not to...  
  
She had sold herself. And she regretted it.  
  
Pushing back the pale, shimmering down coverlet that rested over her legs, she reached for a nearby bed side table to steady herself as she attempted to stand. The table housed a beautiful lamp, encrusted with a be-jeweled scene of a pack of arctic wolves tramping in a straight line into an oncoming blizzard. The table was black stone, thin, and not very sturdy, the many swirls and elaborate engravings on the stone had taken their toll on its dependability as a versatile piece of furniture. It was....a piece of art.   
  
Not a crutch.  
  
Kagome had barely rested any of her, at most, 120 pounds on the table's surface when the whole thing collapsed, taking her shrieking form with it. Her right arm hit the floor painfully, the cast protecting its already shattered interior, but it caused her to yelp loudly in pain. Wincing, she tried to stand, pull herself up, but was to weak.......to find the strength. With a sob of despair she collapsed to the floor, her salty tears drenching its cool surface, the black marble.........so black........so black..........  
  
Her entire world was black. There was no light, there were no colors. It was all dark........nothing....nothing could make this better.....She had lost her entire world in the blink of an eye........she dropped her head, banging it painfully on the stone, another bruise added to her collection of scrapes and numerous contusions. She didn't care anymore.........why should she care.......Souta was gone.....and she was.....his.  
  
She didn't even hear the door creak open.  
  
A small figure crept silently in, sniffing the air as it cocked its ears forward, keenly listening to the girl's cries of dejection. It slinked closer....tiny feet silently padding their way towards her prone form. Sniffing again...it slid under the bed.....devilish eyes twinkling in the rainbows of pigment created by the chandeleir. Kagome never noticed the creature until it was within a foot of her face.  
  
"Meow?" it said.  
  
Kagome jumped, her eyes leaping, red and teary from their position on the floor to the small thing in front of her. A cat. It was cream colored with a black nose and paws, its eyes red like the rubies she wore around her neck. And oddly enough.....it had two tails....Not one.......two. Kagome reached, astounded to rub the base of the small animal's spine, watching it arch its back in happiness as she rubbed. Her mind wandered happily as the cat purred, rubbing against her. Her thoughts escaping her gilded prison....aimlessly walking through her child hood home. Before her parents died......before her grandpa died......before her fateful capture.  
  
Her chubby toddler's hands reaching towards a rug, one that lay in the sunlight on the tile in the kitchen. On the multi-colored ensemble, a fat calico cat lay, large black and orange spots sparkling with cleanliness, a loud obnoxious purr echoing throughout the spacious room. She sighed as her hands dug into his soft fur, the purr becoming louder as she whispered his name....."Buyo...."  
  
"Who's Buyo?" a voice above her asked.  
  
Startled, Kagome once again tried to leap up to her feet, and once again.........discovered one of the many problems normally encountered with broken bones and fast movements.........the floor.  
  
Again.  
  
Wincing in absolute agony, Kagome whimpered out loud as she lay her head down in defeat, not even containing the strength enough to look at the person above her.......the person Inuyasha probably assigned to come in to mangle and torture her every day. From the condition her brother was in........heck.....she wouldn't doubt it. She thoroughly expected to look like a plate of lasagna after this encounter.   
  
However.......people are not always what they seem..........  
  
How was she to know that Inuyasha had no true intentions to cause harm to her in the first place.......that all he needed her for was bait? That at this very moment.....Kouga was plotting behind Inuyasha's back with.........  
  
Nevermind.  
  
So she was utterly surprised when a hand, rough and calloused that was covered in a sleeve of sorts, with a rosary wrapped around it, reached down as if to help her from her prone position of desperation.  
  
And was also startled when the other hand of the person above reached down to rub her butt.  
  
And she was extremely alarmed when that person also ended up on the floor beside her, little yellow birdies floating around his head in circles, singing the Looney Tunes song.   
  
Then..........another hand reached down. Feminine in nature, it sported a beautiful ring, embossed in silver, with an elaborate dog head exactly like the one on her arm bands. Black trailing sleeves dropped below the arm, their expensive silk make-up causing them to flow to the floor in a dark obsidian waterfall. Sexy, red fingernail polish, the color of fresh blood looking like it could almost drip off of the tips of the meticulously manicured nails of their owner. And their owner........was wow.  
  
Kagome blinked owlishly as she reached her un-casted arm forward, her petite hand wrapping around that of her savior.......who was gorgeous. A girl, who stood about, oh, six feet it seemed from her position on the floor, but from perspective should probably be about 5'5. She had long, flowing black hair tied back in a pony tail that cascaded in rich black ringlets to her shoulder blades. Her dress was black and flowing, elaborate silver jangles strung on a thin chain encircling her waist in a showy, but tasteful dash of richness. The sleeves of the dress began with low hanging puffs that revealed the gorgeous ivory skin of their owner, collar bones covered in the silver tassles of the collar like choker around the woman's neck. From the puff sleeves down, yards of sheer fabric of the best quality flowed in simultaneous liquid motion, their length extending far beyond her fingertips. The dress was beyond floor length, the trains of fabric hanging behind it making it shroud-like.   
  
With ease, the girl pulled with amazonian strength, tugging Kagome from her position on the tiled marble easily.  
  
"Hello." the girl whispered, staring into the eyes of her newest companion. What had Inuyasha said her name was.....Kagura.......no.......he would never allow.......Kagura........who then.....Kag.........Kag something.   
  
Kagome.  
  
That was it.  
  
"I'm Sango."  
  
====================  
  
Sango stared as the girl seemed to freeze at the sound of her voice, her head turning slightly to the side as she obviously viewed her surroundings from her inner turmoil. Inuyasha had not told her much about the girl......but, he had said to treat her well. And she could not disobey.........her........master's.......well what else could you call them......orders. Steadying the girl, she helped her silent, tiny form hobble back to the bed side, allowing the girl to sit upon the rumpled surface. She could see why Inuyasha hadn't wanted anyone to get ahold of this servant......she was beautiful, and obviously greviously injured mentally and physically. Obviously.........Inuyasha had sent........Kouga........to do the job again.  
  
Kouga........what a sick bastard..........she had no idea where Inuyasha had discovered his sorry ass.....but she wished she could kick him back to the hole from whence him came. She didn't trust Kouga....he was.......disgusting.....vile........he reeked of alcohol and drugs.....and was never quite in his sane mind.......she never.......never...........felt safe around Kouga.  
  
The girl was shivering uncontrolaby, tears running down her face as she looked through eyes of glass, emotions pulsating in tsunami like waves behind their gorgeous blue color.   
  
The girl continued to sob, the forceful tears causing her to fall into Sango's waiting arms. Startled, Sango held the girl lightly...........her ordeal must have been great......  
  
Sango had no idea at all.  
  
===========================  
  
Kouga snarled as he threw Souta's limp, barely concious, and profusely bleeding form over his shoulder so he could leap the fence of Inuyasha's so-called "compound". What a crock of bull shit. Inuyasha didn't have a compound........Inuyasha had a fricking palace. Inuyasha......Inuyasha......Inuyasha! He HATED Inuyasha. Everything about him was disgusting! The way he walked, the way he talked! Kouga didn't even like the way he smelled. The mutant thing was a dog, not a human. Hell.........he had DOG EARS! Their incesant twitching always causing Kouga to have to hold back the urge to forcefully rip them from his silver-locked head.  
  
And he was stuck with him.  
  
He had struck a deal with Sesshoumaru some years before........a multi-million dollar deal.  
  
Kill Inuyasha.  
  
And it had seemed easy at first.........heck..........attempt to murder one of his servants who would just happen to be running an errand in the park the day that Inuyasha would just happen to be following her...suspecting her to be the mole that let some information of his leak to Sesshoumaru. It should've worked..........but Inuyasha's nose hadn't been counted into the equation.   
  
He had been sniffed out even before he could get into position, immediately having to change his tactics due to the fault of being discovered. And then.........he had fought for his life.   
  
Never......in his wildest dreams had he ever even considered meeting his match in stealth operations........and on that night........he did. He could hardly see.....outwitted by the animalistic nature of the predator before him. The ears atop its head able to predict every movement of his.....every slash side-stepped, every shot fired, dodged. Inuyasha should have killed him.........but instead......he offered him a job.  
  
Odd huh? Having to do the dirty work for a person you were supposed to assasinate........but Inuyasha paid more than Sesshoumaru could possibly comprehend........but why give up two payments?   
  
Kouga began a dangerous game when he accepted the two arch enemies as allies. A dark game in every aspect. Sesshoumaru was quickly informed of this..........and yet...........the son of a bitch hadn't even cared..........he had laughed, laughed audaciously in Kouga's face as he had lain prone on the ground, a gun shot wound through both of his legs, preventing him from running. He had carefully explained a new plan to Kouga........one that involved Higurashi...........one that involved rewards..........the assasin was not to fail his job this time......or he himself would be assasinated..........brutally.  
  
The promised death awaiting him sealed Kouga's lips.........the plan had been set..........and it had been foiled. THAT FRICKING GIRL! Who gave her the AUDACITY to toy with things she didn't understand?! She was only the bait.........and fuck, what does she do? She goes and screws the whole thing up........women and their mood swings.........she wasn't the one who was toying with an over-bearing, pompous syndicate lord. Well.........she was.......but Inuyasha really wasn't all that..........THIS WAS NOT THE TIME TO BE THINKING ABOUT THAT!  
  
His hide might as well have been scraped clean off his body and hung out to dry as leather...Sesshoumaru would not appreciate this twist in his meticulous plan. Sesshoumaru would not like it..........  
  
He grimaced as he ran through the forest surrounding Inuyasha's hideout........his car hidden somewhere in the bushes around him. Snarling, he almost leapt over its hiding place........a narrow, dry creek bed. He had what his comrades called the Hellmobile, a tricked out Jaguar with spoilers, kick ass speakers, and rims to die for. A design of running purple flames had been painted on the car......but in subtle ways......you could barely see them slinking their way up the sides of the two door, their shimmering color so close to that of his car that they blended in one large melting pot of devilish trickery. His engine was a prototype, with enough horsepower to pull a small mountain. Oh yeah.........Kouga's baby had it all. Not to mention the imported black Italian leather.............he slammed the door open viciously, shoving Souta's prone body into the passenger seat. The agent wasn't going to make it back to Sesshoumaru's. He hadn't expected Inuyasha to allow his minions to mutilate the young man as he was........you might as well cart him up in a body bag and send him to the morgue. He probably wouldn't even have arms when they were through with him in the med ward. That gangrene gradually creeping into the exposed and already rotting flesh wasn't helping matters either. It was a sight that almost made the hardened Kouga sick.  
  
Cranking the car, he slammed the transmission into gear, tires squealing as he tore of down the creek bed, rocks flying, as he tried to beat Sesshoumaru's spies back to his office building.  
  
He was already too late.  
  
===================  
  
Sesshoumaru was pissed.  
  
Correction........pissed was an understatement.  
  
Shattered glass lay all around him on the floor, puddles of dark red liquid staining the white carpet....  
bodies lay everywhere......the unlucky few who had strayed into Sesshoumaru's line of fire during his vicious rage..........his black tank top shredded across the middle from a knife throw that was a tad too close.......his loose, black sand blasted jeans splattered with blood from his slashed right hand......a cut on his face drying in red streaks across his cheek, covering up his thin red stripe tatooes, the crescent moon on his forehead symbolizing his power as head of the syndicate........if he was killed......his succesor would slash through the moon with a knife......and have the moon tatooed onto his own forehead......but Sesshoumaru did not plan to be killed..........not any time soon.  
  
A ratty cut-off leather glove covered his left hand.......its mate discarded on the floor where it had been thrown when the blood on his right hand caused it to interfere with his grip on his gun, his eyes blood shot from the maddening anger he had felt when he had heard the news...........  
  
Souta Higurashi.........mutilated.  
  
Sister...........captured..............  
  
Kouga..........alive and well...........but not for long.  
  
He reached out for the only victim who had survived his violent outbreak, a young daytime secretary at the office who knew nothing of this private syndicate life..........who shouldn't have been dragged into this mess...........her eyes were glazing over......the gunshot wound through the side of her throat gushing blood onto the floor.   
  
He gazed on in awe as she struggled to breathe, her brain desperately trying to contact her lungs.... to tell them to continue breathing......not enough blood.....not enough oxygen.........cells and tissues dying, her brain slowly shutting down system by system........organ failure causing the dying shell to hemmorhage.  
  
Her blood slid down her body in a red river dripping onto Sesshoumaru's bare skin.....he smirked, the tatoos stretching with his grin, his teeth feral in the barely illuminated room. He hardly heard the door creak open..........hardly hearing the footsteps behind him....  
  
A slight touch on his shoulder made him jump, pulling his gun from its holster in a lightning quick motion that no human could match, flipping like a cat, his gun's barrel sliding into place between his surpriser's eyes.  
  
His finger began to pull the trigger back....his eyes were wild.........dangerous......and then....  
  
He froze.  
  
He dropped the gun, tears sliding down his face as he gripped the small form before him tightly, pulling the tiny body to himself......molding it to his own like a second skin. Tears dripping onto the head of black hair below him as his hand bled gently onto the tiny back......he couldn't believe.....he had almost........  
  
He couldn't even fathom the thought.....  
  
If he had pulled that trigger.........  
  
Rin would be dead.....  
  
===============  
  
Rin gasped as his hands tightened their hold around her waist, the vice-like grip of his strong hands almost bruising her pale skin as he cried onto her head.....  
  
Not crying because of the murder he had commited moments before as she had read a book in the next room over.........crying because he had almost broken his promise to her..........  
  
He had promised.......that he would never hurt her............again......  
  
And that promise is what made her stand still when he reached for his gun........when he began the decent down the path that could possibly lead to her demise........  
  
She trusted him that much......  
  
Sesshoumaru was a killer.  
  
Sesshoumaru was a drug dealer.  
  
Sesshoumaru was the one who saved her........saved her from.........  
  
Herself.  
  
It hurt to say it.........to mention it in the depths of her psychologically altered mind........that she had been a whore.........a drug user......the spawn that Sesshoumaru made a living off of.... a fucked over slut that had no where else to go......too knocked up on the tainted shit she shot into her veins whenever she had the opportunity.......she was a whore.....not worth anything else......ostracized from a society of stereotypical monsters who neglect to realize that everyone is a human being of equal standing......and she had wanted to die.  
  
She remembered........that day..........  
  
She had tried to sleep inside one of the sleazy bars that surrounded her back-alley habitat......... and had been thrown out, slamming into asphalt as her annorexic frame shuddered against the cold January temperatures........her short mini-skirt and leather tube top providing no protection from the assault of hypothermia.......  
  
She hadn't even tried to get up.  
  
It hadn't hurt to lie there in the street.......her mouth bleeding as she coughed up the lining of her lungs.....lungs tormented by tuberculosis........she was dying..........and she hadn't cared  
  
The pain was fading............colors...........blurring............everything was warm..........there were no more hurts.........no more troubles..........  
  
Fate saved Rin..........and a Jaguar.  
  
The crushing force of the car wheels slamming into her thin and emaciated legs, jolted her back from her dream world, causing her parched vocal chords to stretch their lenghts into a vocal shriek that resounded throughout her slum prison.  
  
She had sobbed in agony as she rolled down the street.......a bone protruding from her right leg....her other.......half-way severed from its original position. It was a miracle the car had stopped.......  
  
For he who had driven that car........and still drove.........was heartless...........  
  
......or was he?  
  
===============  
  
Sesshoumaru recalled the thud in a daze of horror as his vision swept backwards many months.... retreating into the terror that was Rin's former life........pot-holed streets of broken asphalt covered in dirty broken glass. He hadn't even seen her............  
  
She had been lying in the street......and he........he..........just.....ran over her.  
  
She had screamed...........  
  
and it had felt like a part of his soul had died.  
  
He had......  
  
for the first time.........felt.............sorrow?  
  
Could you call it that? No.......it was far too.........consuming..........a desperate desire dying........  
  
Whatever it was.........  
  
it made him stop.  
  
And when he picked up that bruised and bloodied form.......he could have cried..........  
  
He........didn't.............  
  
She.........was..........  
  
He shook his head vehemenently....burying his hands into her soft hair......tears dripping from his cheeks in hot frustration at his slipping control......  
  
The drugs......weren't working.......  
  
And he hated it.....  
  
Hated her.......  
  
for making him........  
  
love.  
  
===============  
  
She stared......her tiny hands running down his muscular arms.....she could feel how tense he was.........how........wired.......  
  
for once.........not........stoned........  
  
Odd...........  
  
he needed the drugs.........  
  
they helped his............  
  
Her train of thought was broken by a hacking cough above her.  
  
She grabbed ahold of his tall slim form as he half-way collapsed.........muscles slumping painfully against her as she dropped to her knees.........his body sliding down hers, head coming to rest in her lap........his labored breathing making his face turn red with pain.  
  
"Sesshoumaru........."  
  
================  
  
Kagome sobbed to her hearts content, tears streaking the extremely accurately placed make-up on her fair skin........this unknown stranger becoming a comfort in a strange new world she did not understand.......  
  
Such finery........  
  
Such.......  
  
cruelty.  
  
What had Souta been hiding from her?  
  
And why?  
  
She looked up, slightly.......aware of the dark-haired girl holding her gently.......allowing her to release the emotions and feelings tormenting her weakened soul...........she had said her name was......Sango? Wasn't that it?  
  
Who was she?  
  
Could she be indebted to the Inuyasha fellow as well?  
  
=================  
  
Sango sighed as the girl's deluge of salt containing tears stopped their flood upon her new gown.......Inuyasha really didn't consider her a servant........more like.........street trash.........she did owe him though........without him.........  
  
Kohaku wouldn't be alive.  
  
And for that she cherished the egotistical, violent, self-centered, play-boy's presence..........  
  
Most of the time.........  
  
Right now.........she was rather angry with him........  
  
How could he do this to somebody?  
  
It had been a long time since she had seen him enjoy tormenting someone.........  
  
Souta.......  
  
well didn't he deserve it?  
  
She didn't even know anymore.......  
  
Was it possible to not know who was right and who was wrong in this bloody syndiate cuu?   
  
This girl..........  
  
she seemed.........  
  
familiar........  
  
Who........  
  
==================  
  
Kagome looked up......brown eyes locking onto the black ones of the girl sitting beside her on the rumpeled covers......both ignoring the dazed body of the man on the floor, the small kitten cocking its head to the side in bewilderment.......she was obviously confused.......the kitten........that is.  
  
And was immediately startled as the new girl, Sango that is, shrieked.  
  
=================  
  
"YOU LOOK JUST LIKE..........LIKE..........LIKE..........."  
  
"KIKYO!"  
  
Um........NOT!  
  
YES....I ADMIT IT.  
  
I was tempted to delve deeply into the Kikyo and Kagome thing  
and drive everyone nuts with unoriginality, which is to say, not  
all stories where Kikyo and Kagome both appear are bad....but  
the idea has been used quite a bit on ff.net. However, I made sure  
to take care of this problem, nip it in the bud you might say.....  
I KILLED KIKYO IN THE FIRST CHAPTER!  
  
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!   
  
(Sorry to all Kikyo lover's, but, I'm sorry to say that, she will never appear again   
in this fic, but will play a key roll in the second fic I'm writing right now, but once  
again, she will be dead.)  
  
I seriously can not stand Kikyo in the anime, and I have episodes 1-105 subbed,  
so I know what's happening in the series......and I don't have to watch the   
awful DUB, but seeing Kikyo all the time........ACK! But, as consolation, her voice  
is really weird in Japanese.....and she actually sounds okay in english....surprisingly.  
  
However.......Shippo's voice........  
  
Kagome's voice........  
  
Kaede's voice........  
  
ICK!  
  
Inuyasha is actually okay, he reminds me of Bit Cloud from the dub of Zoids, which  
by the way, is another awesome show. Miroku's voice is really cool in English, and   
Naraku sounds AWESOME! Whoever they picked for Naraku is good! LOL!   
  
Um.....question to all the readers......  
  
WHERE IN THE WORLD DID THAT COME FROM?  
  
I have no clue.  
  
Okay......on with Beast.  
  
Forgive me for ranting.  
  
I'm lacking sleep, and have a Biology test tommorow.  
  
I had one today too.  
  
Life is not fair.  
  
Biology sucks.  
  
And I've been writing this chapter for almost a month.  
  
I started in February.  
  
It's March 26.   
  
Enough about me......on with the story.  
  
=================== 


	6. Chapter Six aka Chp 5 part 2

===================  
  
The unconcious man had, in a zombie like state, arisen from the floor, his hand sliding lecherously towards Sango's back in a sleepy movement, unaware that he was slowly decreasing his life expectancy as his hand grasped its destination.  
  
Immediately.....  
  
he wished he was dead.  
  
Sango whirled on him, eyes flaring violently as she slammed her hand into his face, the other one leaving its comforting position around Kagome's thin shaking shoulders to rub the place on her behind where he had pinched her.   
  
"HOW DARE YOU?!" she yelped, unable to find any other words to express her anger with the handsome gent, who was wincing as he touched the red hand print now permanently imbedded in his tan cheek.   
  
Kagome just watched in awe.  
  
Sango proceeded to chace this strange man around the room, grabbing various pieces of art, and chucking them vehemently in his direction....flames snorting from her nostrils.........  
  
And Kagome laughed.  
  
For the first time......in days......  
  
She laughed.  
  
She felt like pressure was being lifted off her chest as she laughed, the laughter turning into full blown giggles at the audacity of the scene before her.  
  
The girl named Sango tripping over her long trains, cursing violently as the nimble footed, baggy pant clad man tore around at light speed trying to dodge the projectile missiles being slung towards his cranium.  
  
And try as she might, Sango could not catch him.  
  
Kagome fell over, the pain of her new baneful existence fading in a moment of serenity, one she thought she would never experience again. Perhaps........perhaps these new people and she could be friends?  
  
================  
  
Miroku swore as he dodged the small silver statuet of some sort was slung at his head. Geez! How could it get any better? Seeing her......so beautiful.......chasing him.......  
  
It was a dream come true.  
  
A girl........chasing him......  
  
His face melded into a large grin of happiness as he leapt over the small reclined sofa-like piece of furniture lying in the middle of the room, continuing his hurdle course as he leapt over the onyx coffee table.  
  
He didn't even see the door.  
  
=================  
  
Sango had never laughed so hard in her life.  
  
Miroku had run into the door!  
  
Tears began to stream down her face as she collapsed in a heap on the floor, her delighted and crazed funny bone making her laugh uncontrolably. Her senses went into overload as she tried to breath through the oncoming case of hiccups that was bound to plague her for the next day or so. She pounded the marble with her fist, howling out loud at the absolute histeria of the situation.  
  
She was beginning to calm down when she heard someone else.........  
  
Muffled giggling........  
  
Startled, she remembered the new girl...........the one who had seemed almost.........broken.  
  
Was she......laughing?  
  
She turned, looking at the bed, where the girl hid her head in a mound of silver down covers, her eyes twinkling merrily in the light of the antique light. Sango smiled........Miroku did serve a beneficial purpose every once in a while. He had brought her back.........from wherever she had gone..........and what Sango saw sitting there........was beautiful.  
  
This.....was her?  
  
Beautiful was an understatement.  
  
Drop dead sexy was more like it.   
  
The red highlights she had put in her hair while she slept were falling gently across the deep chocolate windows to her soul..........eyes with the power of expression.....and strength. The earrings seemed like they were made for her. They're long dangling chains of silver dazzling in the light. The small bandage on her cheek did nothing to take away from the flushed appearance on her face......the look that made what had once seemed like a cold and hopeless corpse, come alive again.   
  
Who was this girl?  
  
Sango stared.........she.........could swear............she had seen her somewhere...............before........  
  
Her mind flipped back to a debut of a new fashion chain by elite super star Elijia Montereza, a bad ass singer gone global.   
  
The star of the show had been a rookie model, a tiny, raven haired beauty the critics loved.  
  
She had flare.......style.......they had gushed about her the entire time.  
  
She was.........Higurashi........Higurashi's sister...........  
  
Could she be?  
  
There was no way.....how the HELL could Inuyasha have kidnapped someone like her..........  
  
Could this girl be THE Kagome Higurashi?  
  
================  
  
Kagome laughed until her sides ached, one of the obviously cracked ribs she now owned making her wince in pain...but it was just too funny. How could anyone be so stupid? I mean yes.......dodging flying archaeological relics was a good way to save your hide......but running into a door?  
  
She had never seen anything like it.  
  
And that in itself was funny.  
  
She, an internationally reknowned model, a multi-millionaire, had never in her life, seen anyone run into a door.  
  
=================  
  
Quick break!  
  
Hiya folks, I've decided that however far I get each night I'll leave an A/N telling you how I got to this point in the story etc.  
  
Has anybody else besides me noticed that I'm quite cruel to the characters? Gee, first I about kill Kagome and Souta, and  
now it's Miroku's turn?  
  
Heheheh.........  
  
Yup........  
  
Well I gotta go to sleep, I once again, am suffering from a lack of sleep.  
  
P.S. GOD BLESS AMERICA! All you peeps out there who protest against the war, YOU DON'T SPEAK FOR ME!  
My daddy's a Colonel in the United States Marine Corps and I'm proud of him and the marines who are fighting for us in the Middle East! And Justin, stay safe man! Even though I probably won't see you for another year or so, depending on how long this war goes on, good luck, and don't get sunburnt in the desert! I'm praying for ya!   
  
And now, Lunar Kitty will "sing" a song:  
  
Oh beautiful, for spacious skies  
for amber waves of grain  
  
For purple mountains majesty  
above the fruited plain  
  
America  
  
America  
  
God shed his grace on thee.  
  
And crown thy good  
  
With brotherhood  
  
from sea to shining sea  
  
- May 27  
  
==================  
  
Sango's awe quickly turned to astonishment as the girl slowly stood up on the matress, grabbing viciously onto the closest poster of the bed near her, the stone framework supporting her body easily, balancing her weight on the large pole, head slouching to the side in tired submission, although her bell-like laughter continued unmercifully.  
  
"I......" the girl breathed, her voice catching Sango's attention with it's rasp of dissuse.  
  
"Have never seen anything so funny........in my entire life." Kagome once again collapsed into a heap of giggles, allowing her tired body to flop onto the soft mattress behind her, enjoying the feeling of comfort from the immense mound of goose down now underneath her beaten body.  
  
Miroku's dazed form twitched in an odd manner as he lay inert on the floor, a large bump protruding from between his large blue eyes, all signs pointing to possible brain damage.......  
  
Which Sango was already pretty sure he had...........  
  
Ignoring the spasms of her prone former oponent, Sango turned, opening her mouth as she went, preparing to confront the laughing girl on her true identity and her means of becoming another one of Inuyasha's little toys.  
  
"Hey....are.......you.........."  
  
Sango's tirade died off as she reached the side of the large silver encrusted bed, startled by the stark silence now echoing through the room, her mouth hanging open at the sound of soft breathing, not the heavy signs of respiratory failure that Miroku was showing at the moment.   
  
"ASLEEP?!"  
  
Sango stared in absolute awe at the girl before her........who......was ASLEEP?! WHAT IN THE SEVEN HELLS? How could anyone fall asleep THAT fast?! Well........Inuyasha could.....but that was beside the fact....  
  
At this..........Sango gave up.  
  
With a sigh of denial she let herself collapse on the nearest chair, exasperation flowing through her veins thicker than the life-giving blood she pumped from her heart...........  
  
Her eyes wandered the room, trying to find something to take her mind off the absolutely idiotic fact that because Inuyasha SAID so, she had to watch this girl...........  
  
That task including sleep.  
  
Her eyes settled on a door-knob barely peeping from behind a tapestry hanging from the wall that had possession of a large pipe-organ (LUNAR KITTY WANTS A PIPE ORGAN IN HER ROOM TOO! Like the one at Duke University, in the chapel.....ahhh.....I love music, but I'll talk about that later in the A/N). You would never have noticed it if the light wasn't shining on it correctly......what was in there anyways?  
  
She had cleaned the rooms earlier for the arrival of this new leige of her master.....but........where did that door lead to?  
  
She couldn't remember.  
  
That made it worth investigating.  
  
Her eyes shifted to Miroku, still collapsed on the floor, good to go for another two hours at least. She cautiously stood up and tipped-toed over to him......  
  
And kicked him in the side.  
  
A slight grimace passed over the bruised countenance of the young man, but she saw no other signs of life underneath the now distorted face.  
  
Laughing inside, she walked along the edge of one of the persian carpets, making her way towards the bed again. Once there, she carefully checked the vital signs of the sleeping beauty, reassuring herself that the girl wouldn't go into cardiac arrest while she examined the door.  
  
Smiling, she lifted her skirts, making a b-line for the abovesaid opening in the wall.  
  
Most doors in Inuyasha's house liked to change places, each door chaging its face as it switched with neighbors and fifth cousins on the other side of the compound. Sometimes you reached the same room when you opened a door, sometimes an entirely new room, so it wasn't surprising that a new door had suddenly appeared inside this chamber.  
  
The original door had probably been a broom closet of some sort, that in an odd manner, switched with a door much to big for its size, which led to being discovered. Obviously the original occupent of the frame was meant to be hidden, but did that mean that this door was made to be hidden or to be found?  
  
Most likely, because of the fact she had been able to find it....  
  
It was a door that liked being found.  
  
Those were the nice doors. The ones that stayed just where you wanted them too, or even moved when you asked......some, however..........spiteful doors.........angry doors.......they were the oddest thing about Inuyasha's castle......it belonging to the legendary Kaede before it was Inuyasha's also had something to do with it's smart-ass attitude half of the time......  
  
The castle missed her.  
  
But....enough of that........  
  
Kaede was.....gone......  
  
and that was that.  
  
Reaching forward, she brushed the elaborate tapestry away from the enterance so it would not encumber her entrance to the new mysterious chamber beyond.   
  
Her hand gently clamped around the ornate handle of the dark wooden door, slightly rusted from lack of use. She pushed the door, watching carefully as it opened, in case one of the imprisoned bogie things that Inuyasha kept lying around his palace was not caged inside.   
  
Light streamed through the doorway, warm, bright light, like that of the sun......oh! This was an enchanted.............bathroom? An enchanted bathroom.........how.........quaint........sunlight shone through a large bay window, which was lined with cushion covered seats. In the middle of the seats, a bathtub as large as a small backyard swimming pool stretched the entire length of the bathroom, its waters floating with large live lillies and floating candles, steam rising in billows as a fragrance of roses filled the room, delighting her freckle-covered nose.  
  
She tiptoed over, the loss of her boots, which she had somehow removed earlier and thrown at Miroku, allowed her steps to be quiet, her small feet barely making any noise as she crept towards the serene vision before her.....it had been so long since she had a bath.....  
  
She reached the side, her hand reaching to touch the delightful water......and it was warm! That kind of warm that makes you feel cozy from head to toe.......smirking in ecstasy, she reached behind her back for the laces that held her slightly sheer dress up..........no one around.......Miroku possibly brain dead......and the girl asleep? Why pass up this opportunity?  
  
She let the dress fall to the ground, removing her undergarments as she stepped onto the platform that led into the bath.....her feet stepping in.......her body sinking in the warm, lucious depths of the bath tub. Steam rising in clouds around her as she settled herself in the large tub. Her bottom quickly came in contact with a large underwater cushion apparatus that molded to her like a second skin. She giggled in delight as a floating tray drifted by her, its bouyant form carrying a bottle of bath bubbles. With a slight nod to the heavens for such a wonderful gift at such a stressful time in her life, she reached out and grasped the pinkish colored bottle and dumped its contents into the tub. Eyes closing..........head resting on a cushion behind her.........  
  
=================  
  
FINALLY! Geez, how long does it take to finish a paragraph?! I was on foal watch for four days in a row waiting for one of the horses to have a baby, and didn't have any time at all to write on this. It's only about fifteen pages long.........geez......can't fuss at me for not writing enough....I would put this into seperate chapters........but.........well.........it all fits together.........so I can't!   
  
Now it gets fun though...........we're getting towards the end...........and into the head of our favorite hanyou..........  
  
=================  
  
Inuyasha grimaced, ears pinning to his skull, as he heard the screaming and curses of his two "FAVORITE" people echo down the hall. He was wearing a pair of black silk boxers, and nothing else, due to the fact that he HAD been taking a nap, due to the strains his form put on his still somewhat human body. He was seething......anger rolling off his form in waves as he stormed up the magestic main staircase of his compound, as he affectionately called it. Servants were falling on the floor in terror as he walked by, most likely due to the bloody red hue of his eyes, and his long claws........... easy body-language that translated into a simple "I'm pissed".   
  
His keen nose quickly identified the source of the ruckuss that had now died down to a simple 'oomph' every once and a while, and a large bout of laughter. He was glad the diurnal elephants were having fun, but it was too much for his ears......Sango was getting ready to receive a large piece of his mind, wrapped and fed-exed directly to her small, body-guarding brain.  
  
A snarl began to rumble in his chest as he approached the silver-gilded chamber he had requested specifically for the girl........They would cause her MORE distress?! He quickly sprinted to the door, his ears twitching viciously, carefully listening for any noise that could signal the Higurashi girl's unhappiness.....normally an encounter with Miroku left most girls feeling.......absolutely violated. This girl had no idea that Miroku was a perverted lecher, and that Sango.......whom he had SPECIFICALLY ASSIGNED to keep the lech on a leash, continually failed to carry out her job properly.   
  
He knew he should have boiled her in oil in payment for her brother's life........  
  
However.........  
  
He hadn't.  
  
The large wheels and cranks in his head began to turn quickly as he anticipated his own next move....  
  
To take them by surprise.  
  
A smile lit up his devilishly handsome face, fangs protruding from each side of his mouth.....almost drooling at the prospect of a chase.........the hunt........his terrifying expression when he finally caught up to the dynamic duo he was pursuing.......and the absolute histeria of the terrified look on their faces as he burst into evil laughter......Insert creepy Naraku theme music here......  
  
With this in mind.....he reached causiously for the ancient door knob of the chamber, claws leaving slight indentions in the metal as he grasped it tentatively, eagerly listening to its bolts.......trying to ensure that it would not creak and give his presense away....  
  
But they didn't budge.  
  
Alarmed, Inuyasha shoved lightly on the doors, mostly relying on his super-human strength.......but to no avail. With a snarl, Inuyasha slammed his entire weight into the doors, ignoring his original plan as he desperately clammored to get into the chamber before him. Nothing worked.   
  
Pushing and shoving with all his might had done nothing but relieve him of the little rest he had received during his miniscule nap thirty minutes earlier. Sango and Miroku were going to get it as soon as he got the doors opened.........  
  
================  
  
Kagome stirred in her sleep as a loud bang richocheted throughout her chamber, her position on the large silver down comforter not uncomfortable in the slightest as she sleepily opened her heavily make-upped eyes. Her dark brown gaze met the horrifying sight of the doors, shivering and reverbrating as if they were alive, their wolf encrusted surface actually snarling aloud as they rocked back and forth, the only thing preventing them from moving was the immobile carcass of the weird perverted man she had only briefly met before his cataclismic encounter with the door.  
  
Startled, she shifted back uneasily into the mountainous pillows behind her, her eyes frozen on the reverbrating motion of the large panels, seizing in all directions as the very roots of the building groaned with their collosal effort. In terror, she shrunk into a tiny ball, her earlier ascertained feeling of safety fading away into further terror as she relived her frantic scramble to leave her building.....  
  
The doors were slowly beginning to give way, they're tedious reverbrations causing the hinges to snap as they groaned in distress. Her heart pounded, face reddening as her panic-stricken hold on her sanity gradually gave way to total pandemonium, her thoughts twisting every sick horror story she had ever heard into one large primordial soup of terror.   
  
With a violent crack, a hole appeared in the once solid apparatus before her, a clawed hand, gushing blood from numerous scratches stretched inside the once semi-holy sanctity of the silver chamber...  
  
Her blood rushed.......  
  
Heart pounded........  
  
Ankle......THROBBED.........  
  
Her eyes flashed black as the doors swung open wide....they're force shoving the inert man backwards.......  
  
She couldn't breathe.......  
  
A shadowed figured clad in black.....black.........no.........stepped into the room.......a feral snarl errupting from its form.......  
  
Kagome screamed........  
  
and fainted.  
  
===============  
  
Ok that's it for now folks! I'm too tired of continuously writing more and more for this one chapter, it can wait till chapter six! I've got ideas for other fics! This one wasn't supposed to get so deep, but it did, so I'm updating and that's that. Sorry I didn't get to include the previous chappy's preview for this chapter, I'm thinking that will be omitted anyways. Next time however, expect to hear a little more about Souta, Sesshoumaru's mysterious ailment, Inuyasha and Kagome's relationship, and more!  
  
R/R!!!! - Lunar Kitty  
  
BTW: I had to split Chapter Five into two chapters, FF.net wouldn't let me upload the entire document, it was too big!!! It's about thirty to fourty pages long......LOL........got a lil carried away! Well I finished it on April 29th, TWO MONTHS.........god what a long time!!! Chapter seven is on its way, toodles! 


	7. Chapter 7

Beast  
  
Chapter 7  
  
================  
  
A/N: HIYA! This is being written just before I get out of school for the summer, so it won't be finished until probably the first week of June. Sorry I've kept everyone hanging for so long, school's been pretty tough this year, and I've been taking time off from everything to devote more time to my studies. And NOT just my writing. My mom made me stop horseback riding on weeknights until the end of the school year! I'm DEPRIVED! However, things are looking up. I have a part-time job babysitting the five year old girl I give riding lessons to and her sister. SHE IS SOO CUTE! She's riding this HUGE horse and she's only about two feet tall! Some of my JUMPS are bigger than her!!! I give her piggy-back rides and talk to her all the time! She's sooooo C-U-T-E! The whole job thing is going to be a great help to my lack of money. I mean, I have no problems car wise and stuff. I have a '99 dark green Honda Accord, with a sunroof, but no CD player :( What I really want is a TRUCK! I want a Ford F150, and none of that LOWRIDER mess! Give me a tow package and a V8 4X4! WAAAHHOO! REDNECKING! Yes, I am a SOUTHERN GAL! And I do say YA'LL, and drop the g's off of all my 'ing' words. Best thing is, mom and dad are paying for my gas, insurance, a cell phone, and they're gonna get me a Citgo card so I can do the nifty little Pump 'n' Pay deal. All my work money is gonna be spent on my FOUR LEGGED BABIES!!!! I'm an animal junkie, I admit it. I'm crazy about my horses, my cats, and I want a dog. I want to be an Equine Veterinarian, and I want to go to a private college where I can major in 'Equine Business Management'. With the money I'm gonna make, I'm gonna buy two new saddle pads for JB (my black-bay, 16.2 hand high mammoth Arabian gelding), a white show-jumping pad with red piping, and a new western pad that's red and blue plaid, but very small plaid, so that it looks mostly red. And I'm going to order this shirt from this magazine that says "Frequent Flyer" and it has this tope picture of a hunter jumper FLYING over this jump and it's so cool! My favorite shirt says 'Here's one little girl who'd rather clean a stall than her own room'! Well that's enough a/ning. On to the seventh chapter in my dark fairy tale........  
  
P.S. If anybody out there does Neopets, my ID is hiei_kitty1. Neomail me!!  
  
==================  
  
Geez!  
  
What the hell was going on in here?  
  
Inuyasha stared at the torn draperies and broken artifacts he had painstakingly gathered from around the world's darkest underworlds........that had been turned into rubble. He barely had time to look around and totally survey the damages his two psychotic pets had wreaked on the room he had intended to be a holy sanctum for the new girl, a shrine to prevent Kouga from entering into her room, when the scream broke forth.  
  
The blood-curdling scream echoing throughout the chamber made him wince in pain that almost proved to be unbearable. How could ANYONE make such an OBSCENE noise? His gaze shifted to where the noise originated, and the prone form of his newest.....well, what could you call her? Acquisition fit.....but that would put this girl on the level of his many......slaves? Could you call them that? Yes....he supposed....the empire had long ago made the law banning slaves obsolete, as many other-worldly creatures favored the idea of total domination over the lowest beings of society. It was even allowed for young children to sell themselves into slavery, if need be. However....this girl....was not a slave.  
  
Not in the least.  
  
Everything about her echoed with an air of almost subtle dominance. She was a strong spirit, although weakened by her injuries....At that thought he winced slightly, causing a spiral fracture in her arm wasn't what he had planned....it would take weeks for her to heal....and how could she ever learn to.......well....that was beyond the topic, and it was still much to early for him to even assume that the girl would want anything to do with him once this whole facade was played out.....and hopefully in a timely fashion, if Bankotsu would hurry up with his dawdling in Vegas acquiring........well wouldn't he like to know what Bankotsu was doing......he almost laughed as he continued towards the prone form of the girl, amused thoughts circulating around Bankotsu, a strange character in all aspects, and surprisingly, one of his only....friends?  
  
He didn't even notice Miroku, who had been slid across the floor by the force of his blow to the now groaning shattered remains of the regal doors.  
  
And that would be his downfall.  
  
Literally.  
  
Still snarling as his ears rung with continuing echoes of the girl's loud, tumultuous yell, he continued to walk forward, slamming into Miroku, his form, exhausted from the effort of slamming the doors for what seemed an eternity causing him to lose what little balance he had retained.   
  
With a startled," What the fuck?!" his feet slipped from underneath him as the slight bump sent him careening into the footboard of the stone bed. Which he then slid down with a sickening thud.  
  
Then all hell broke loose.  
  
Inuyasha, bleeding from a large cut on his forehead turned towards the obstacle, Miroku, who had been awoken by the bone-jarring encounter with Inuyasha's clawed toes, a snarl beginning to circulate in the back of his throat. Miroku had hardly had time to emit a tiny eep of surprise at the state of Inuyasha, his glowing eyes freakishly glaring daggers into his skull when he was pounced upon.  
  
"Why YOU!" Inuyasha snarled, claws digging into the ground as he grappled with the now struggling Miroku, who was gasping for air.  
  
"Inuyasha! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" he managed to yelp, wincing as Inuyasha slammed him backwards into the nearest hard object, which happened to be the very same footboard his master had tripped into moments before.   
  
"What am I doing?!" Inuyasha panted, voice slightly haggard as he tried to catch his breath while trying to wrest himself out of the vicious strangle hold Miroku had managed to inflict upon him during his time answering the question.  
  
"I'm KILLING YOU!" he rasped, easily flipping Miroku out of the way as he swiped his claws, now dripping with the very substance he had mutated in.   
  
"And when I'm done wiping your carcass off of the ground, I'm killing SANGO! Where the HELL is she anyways?!!!" he bellowed  
  
"Geez, Inuyasha!" Miroku screeched as he barely dodged another ugly swipe towards his countenance. He quickly made a run for it when Inuyasha slipped in a puddle of water that was on the floor, next to a partially open, rather ornate door. Miroku somehow managed to hoot in laughter as he scrambled across the massive tiles of the room to get away from his master, who happened to be lying face down in the puddle he'd slipped in, growling in a bubbly sort of fashion.   
  
Taking advantage of the few moments of respite Miroku quickly glanced around the chamber, looking for a solution, anywhere to hide from his master's wrath.  
  
Then it hit him, however, not so literally in this sense.  
  
He made a dash for the door behind the tapestry, the one from which the puddle emanated, hoping that he would not open it into some abyss of darkness full of bats, which had happened to him before. He sweat dropped, closing his eyes as he prayed to all the gods he knew of to save him from whatever ill fate awaited him behind the door.  
  
His hand turned the handle, the slight creak of the woodwork adding to the helplessness of his situation. Either he leap into the unknown beyond, or stay here to be eaten, or some other such trash by the evil mutant water dog behind him.  
  
He chose the former.  
  
================  
  
Hello! This is Keruseyu. I'm Lunar Kitty's beta reader, aka her younger sister. My sister's gone for the moment, and she said that I get to write here. Though I really don't know why. I think this is the best thing my sister has ever written, better than her horse novels and fairy tales that she writes in her journals and are never finished. Maybe it's because she likes Inuyasha so much. She's good at anime fics. Even though anime isn't first in her life. Horses are, but she fails to write good stories about them. Screw it.  
  
This is MY designated space in a popular fic. At least it's more popular than any of mine. I've failed to get more than 30 reviews on any of my stories, though I think I got pretty close on one of them. Lol. But I deleted it because it was stupid. It actually had six chapters (Pats self on back). All my other stories are like, uh, one chapter. I run out of ideas. But I'm writing one right now. I'm gonna get   
  
about 6 chapters in before I actually post it. It's called Cursed, and it was inspired by Cameron Dokey's 'Beauty Sleep' (What can I say? We love fairy tales, and Sleeping Beauty ROCKS!). Well, I gotta go take out my contacts before our Mom blows a MAJOR fuse. Bye!  
  
=================  
  
Sango started uneasily when she heard Kagome scream, leaping out of the water and reaching for her dagger that lay on top of her neatly folded dress and trappings. She didn't even bother with her clothes, if her charge was in danger; it didn't matter if she had clothes on or not. If she failed to protect her, let's just say that Souta would look like a well patient.  
  
Water splashed over the sides of the tub, spilling under the door frame into the silence beyond. She crept uneasily through the now messy enchanted restroom from beyond, all senses on highest alert, as she searched for any signs of trouble from the chamber past the door.  
  
As soon as an enraged "What the fuck?!" entered her range of hearing, she knew she was screwed. Inuyasha was here! She squeaked in panic, almost falling on her butt as she raced for her clothes. The muffled sounds echoing behind her startling her into a freakish frenzy as she flung her clothes left and right, searching for her underwear, which unfortunately, happened to be particularly lacey.   
  
She barely had put them on, and was still searching for her bra as she heard the rusty door knob begin to squeak as it turned. Freezing, she pivoted on her feet, eyes growing large as the person behind the door began to turn the knob, the old piece of hardware's surface protesting in agony.  
  
Gulping, her only thoughts revolved around the fact that she was going to be murdered in her underwear. Strange, huh? Of all the ways she could possibly die, this was going to be the one option she hadn't quite thought of yet. Licking her now dry lips, she muttered the only thing that came to her mind.   
  
"Ohhhhhh shit."  
  
=================  
  
Miroku flung the door open, stepping in, and trying to close it before Inuyasha could grab it with his abnormally long arms. He sighed in relief, as he faced the closed door behind him, hoping his master's keen ears hadn't heard his less-than-quiet escape.  
  
He turned around with a sigh, eyes closed as he took a large gulp of well needed air. Opening his eyes slowly, he gasped in absolute shock. There, standing before him, was Sango, practically naked, wearing nothing but a pair of tiny, almost transparent underwear. Steam rose around her, its source, a large bathtub that rivaled the size of an Olympic swimming pool.  
  
His breath hitched in his throat as he whispered a solemn, "Thank you, God." while he rubbed his lecherous hands together. "I've died and gone to heaven."  
  
=================  
  
"Make that HELL!" came a holler.  
  
Miroku didn't even know what hit him, but it roughly contained the force of a large transfer truck laden with cargo. It really was not his day. Sango continued her vicious onslaught, all the while managing to throw at least one article of clothing over her almost bare form. As she raised her hand back, the handle of her dagger in her fist as she made the move to slam it into his puny little head, the door swung open.  
  
However, her arm was already in motion.  
  
And it could not be stopped.  
  
The fearsome strength of a freight train was locked and loaded in Sango's arm, and when it hit. It hit.  
  
Miroku was slammed back, his form colliding with the occupant of the door frame.  
  
Who just happened to be one wet-faced dog beastie.  
  
==================  
  
A/N: Okay folks, sorry that took so long! It's only about five pages this time, so I hope you can forgive me, it would be longer, but I went on vacation, and I'm having computer trouble, which doesn't really help my writing abilities. ^^; I actually have a lot to talk about, so if you're a big A/N reader, like me, you'll appreciate this. If not, I'm just wasting space and you'll go review (cough::hint::hint::cough) and tell me what you think about this chapter :) This chapter actually took a trip away from the ordinary gore of this fic, so it's probably a relief to some reviewers who thought it was kinda sick (lol), however, it's not my mind, trust me. I'm actually a very hyper, wild person. I like to drink water and eat lots of sugary stuff. Not good for the weight loss program, but I do about 300 crunches every night, and taibo, and horseback ride, and.....okay that's enough getting off subject. I'm not quite sure where all the gross stuff came from, in fact, it was a light and airy fic before I revised it. ^^; I think it came from my evil twin......the dark side of my concience.....I dunno, I think it's more or less the fact that I'm a sucker for suspense. Sometimes I can't even read a fanfiction if something big happens. I'll just stop, because I'm flipping out over all the possibilities that could occur in the next chapter. Most likely, it's due to the fact that I really enjoy dark fics.   
  
My sister, introduced earlier in the chapter, is my beta reader. As she watched over my shoulder, giggling the entire time as I wrote this chapter she was looking through one of our numerous mangas, and it just happened to be Inuyasha Vol. 11. She was laughing over Miroku and his idiocy when I stole it from her, to peruse the pages. We were discussing a rather odd fact. Has anyone noticed that I've changed the color of Kagome's eyes? I didn't notice myself. In the manga, her eyes are rather bluish-grayish, and in the anime, they're brown. Weird, huh? In this fic, she started out with blue eyes, and now has brown. Well on with the story. I flipped to the back, which is the part where Sango steals Tetsusaiga to give it to Naraku in exchange for her brother's life. And I noticed a strange thing. Naraku is a 'widdle baboon'. (glances over shoulder in annoyance as sister explodes in gales of laughter) I noticed that compared to all the other characters, Naraku's baboon form in this one picture was really tiny, when it should have been larger. Odd, huh?   
  
And just a few more generic comments before I go. (Can you tell that I'm quite chatty in person?) Concerning Tatu and they're song, 'Not Gonna Get Us'. Has anyone heard the Russian version? I downloaded about four versions to decide which one I liked best. Unbeknownst to moi, I downloaded the Russian version. Expecting it to be in english, the first thing that occurred to me when 'Nas ne dogonjat' (spelling???) came through my speakers, was that Tatu was singing 'I'm not in a cornfield'.   
  
Oh, and a little hint about chapters to come. Kagome is going to eventually get a cat of her own, who will be just like my fattest cat. Black all over, and named Booger. 


	8. Chapter 8

Beast Chapter 8  
  
==============  
  
A/N: Hidy hidy hidy HI! I'm so excited I've got 50 (or more, I dunno) reviews!! This Yes, Kagome's cat will be named Booger because my cat is named Booger and I want to put him in the fic! This chapter is going to be longer, yes I know some people were disappointed with the last one cuz it was so short :( I was too. Another thing, we're FINALLY going to get an I/K moment! Might not be fluffy and sweet, but it'll be their first encounter where they're somewhat on equal terms, and Kagome's temper is going to flare!  
  
Annddd, an answer to The Random Queen on the whole A/N thing. Plenty of stories have author's notes longer than mine, and sometimes I get a lil carried away because I'm very talkative. I'll try to make them shorter.  
  
==============  
  
Inuyasha let out a slight 'oomph' as Miroku collided with his rock solid chest, barely even flinching despite the force of Sango's blow. He was getting slightly annoyed with this entire situation. Not only did the idiots have the audacity to awaken him, they left the girl alone! Well, not quite alone, but an unconscious Miroku was not very helpful in a dangerous situation. Not to mention, if Miroku had not been passed out, the girl would have been mentally disturbed even further by the strange man's absurd behavior.  
  
Unceremoniously dropping Miroku on the floor, who once again, was immobile, he turned his gaze upon Sango. Her hair and clothes were sopping wet, and her dagger was held by its blade in her hand. She had DARED to leave her ward? Was this insubordination? His eyes glared evilly towards her, the disappointment in his orbs causing an uncomfortable silence between the two of them.  
  
She hung her head, trying to avoid his gaze. Thus only infuriating him more.  
  
"Sango" he stated voice hard with criticism "Why did you leave the girl alone?" His tone was soft, but dangerously so. It reverberated with an emotion he couldn't even place. Was he furious? He had no idea anymore. He had put up with so much crap from these two, and this time, their crap could have cost him his only chance to rectify many of his serious wrongs.  
  
He needed the girl.  
  
Sango knew he needed the girl.  
  
So why had she left them alone?  
  
===============  
  
Sango winced when Inuyasha spoke her name. He had trusted her with this operation....and she had botched it due to some frivolous desire of her own. Inuyasha....she owed everything to Inuyasha. Where would Kohaku be now if Inuyasha had not intervened? Where would she be?  
  
She quivered as she tried to summon the courage up to answer her master, who was the savior of her soul. He had brought her back from near death, revived her brother......what had she done? Never had she deliberately disobeyed his orders. Sure, Miroku had plenty of times, but that was because he was an idiot. She opened her mouth, mind whirling with many replies, trying to select one that would possibly save her from some mediocre fate. It was well known what Inuyasha did to servants who had failed him....  
  
"Master Inuyasha....." she began, trying to hold back the absolute horror that washed over her as she began to speak. Would she seal her own fate? Had she signed a death warrant when she stepped into the room around her?  
  
However, her reply was cut short by a roar of indignation from the man before her "What the HELL does you THINK YOUR DOING?!"  
  
With a squeal, Sango had ducked, throwing her hands over her head and shutting her eyes tightly to avoid any possible blows.  
  
===============  
  
Kagome winced as she sat up in bed, wondering how many more times she would have the shit scared out of her by the crazy people that now surrounded her. She had finally gotten off to sleep, and a growling fiend slams through the chamber doors, causing her to collapse into darkness once more. The only problem with passing out, was that you didn't feel refreshed after your lovely nap. You felt even worse.  
  
She was absolutely miserable. She had two broken limbs, and sleeping in a dress that had a bodice so tight it was extremely hard to breath. Gasping for air, she pushed herself up with her good arm, eyes focusing on the turmoil around her. The room was trashed from the stomping rampage the girl named Sango had inflicted upon it. Of course, she would have done something much similar to it if she had been touched one more time by that quack. There were however, limited options with her handicaps.  
  
Sighing, she surveyed the room for signs of the girl who had helped her earlier, and was shocked to see her captor confronting her in a room that was annexed to her current abode. Startled to hear him chastising her, and slightly satisfied to see the perverted idiot once again prone on the floor at the boxer clad man's feet.  
  
She slid towards the edge of the bed, eyes riveted on the back of her captor. He was well muscled, although his body was covered in horrendous scars. They were blood red, looking like open sores. They were oddly shaped, sharp and angular, giving him an odd striped appearance. Reaching for the tall poster at the end of the bed she managed to stand on her own, although most of her weight was supported upon the bed. Her eyes once again turned towards the alluring man before her. Wandering irises swept over his form, leaner than she had thought he would be, as she had only seen him in large robes. As she continued her survey, her gaze flew over the silvery tresses of his head, falling to mid back. Geez, his hair was longer than her own!  
  
Then something amazing caught her eye.  
  
There, atop his head, was a pair of absolutely adorable ears! She was sure she had seen them before, but she hadn't thought them real. She stared in awe as they rotated and swiveled towards sounds around the room, their soft silver fur glinting in the pale light of the many lamps around the room. Staring at those ears, she suddenly forgot all the cruel things he had done to her, almost forgiving him as she reveled in the kawaii-ness of the ears. Her mind went into 'really-cute-stuffed-aminal-gotta-check-it-out' mode, as she slowly limped towards the figure in front of her, bound and determined to discover if the ears were real.  
  
He was so absorbed in the girl before him that he didn't even hear her coming, which she was somewhat expecting, as he had predicted her moves easily before. She had no idea what she exactly wanted to do concerning those ears at the moment, but it involved staring as he silently lectured the Sango girl.  
  
She almost drooled in awe as she cocked her head to the side, her hands gradually rising up to the top of his six foot head, fingers gently closing over the pointy ears, as she began to tweak them to her hearts content.  
  
She, however, did not expect the reaction she received from the ears' owner.  
  
================  
  
Inuyasha snarled as he whirled viciously around to confront the ear grabber. Who in the world could possibly have the audacity to TOUCH his ears?! They were HIS PROPERTY DAMMIT, and NOBODY was allowed to TOUCH THEM! His arm slammed into the throat area of the person behind him, and lifted the unknown personage by their throat, allowing them to dangle above his head.  
  
To his surprise, his quarry fought back. With a muffled curse, the person kicked out viciously, hitting him right in the nose. Inuyasha yelped like a puppy that had been smacked with a newspaper, dropping his captive in a rush as his hands flew up to his nose, which felt like it was broken. Blood dripped from his nostrils as he muttered the foulest curse he could think of at the moment, which was a mix between shit and damn.  
  
Opening his eyes, he was absolutely shocked to see the....the girl!  
  
She was wincing, and rubbing her throat in a tender fashion. He could already see the new bruises forming, bruises she didn't need. Her whole body was already covered in them. Groaning inwardly at his stupid mistake, Inuyasha opened his mouth slightly, trying to think of something to say that wouldn't be an apology but might possibly pass as one.  
  
His first syllable had barely reached his tongue when he was cut of abruptly by a shrieking voice.  
  
"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR?!"  
  
Inuyasha stared in absolute astonishment as the girl lying piteously on the floor yanked herself up with the help of Sango's proffered hand, her whole body shaking as her face began to redden. Inuyasha gulped. The girl somehow reminded him of a volcano threatening to erupt in a violent and erratic way.  
  
Somewhat afraid...Inuyasha began to slowly back away.  
  
=================  
  
"Kouga." the cold voice stated.  
  
"Y...yes?" Kouga replied, his voice shaking audibly as he confronted a very bloody and tired Sesshoumaru. A Sesshoumaru who held a locked and loaded pistol in his hand, idly spinning the casing (is that what you call the lil thing that holds the bullets? I have NO idea...) as he looked straight at the quivering assassin before him.  
  
"Kouga, you try my patience." Sesshoumaru stated, ice practically dripping from every word he spoke, cold, freezing cold menace glaring from his eyes, like daggers, piercing into every pore of Kouga's soul. Blood poured from the unconscious form of a mangled body that used to be the brave Souta Higurashi, small pieces of flesh fallen from his near-corpse dotting the floor in random areas, where Kouga had walked aimlessly trying to find a suitable place to set him down.  
  
Kouga's heart began to throb as Sesshoumaru cocked the gun, long fingers trailing over it's stainless steel body, sliding down the handle to rest on the trigger.  
  
"And do you know why you try my patience?" he almost whispered, as he began to walk down the steps from the pedestal he stood upon, a large banner behind him covered in the strange markings that established him as absolute leader. Kouga noticed the limp in his step as he walked towards him, making him less intimida....  
  
Kouga froze.  
  
Sesshoumaru was standing no less than three feet from him, his arm extended, placing the barrel of the pistol right between his baby blues. Kouga gulped so audibly that it echoed around the large cathedral like chamber they stood in, it's black walls closing in as he realized how bad he'd fucked things up this time. He watched as a sick smirk washed across the psychopath's face, grim and sinister, with not a single ounce of mercy in his features.  
  
"Sesshoumaru, I swear I can explain!" Kouga yelped, terror evident in his tone as his eyes grew wild and hysterical. He knew better than to run.....he knew better than to run. The scars on his legs indeed justified the consequences of running from Sesshoumaru.  
  
"Explain what? You've had your chances, Kouga. So now, we're going to play a little game called Russian roulette. Do you know how to play Russian roulette, Kouga?"  
  
Kouga nodded, not even blinking as he began to pray for mercy from anyone who cared. Sesshoumaru reached out with his left hand, his right being the one holding the gun, and spun the home of a little bullet round and round for the last time. Kouga felt like a player on 'Wheel of Fortune', watching anxiously as the wheel spun, slowing gradually, each little spike slowly bringing they're next chance or failure. He held his breath, everything swum around him. He barely registered the sound of the trigger being pulled back, didn't even hear Sesshoumaru's words.  
  
In fact, he never heard anything again.  
  
===============  
  
Sesshoumaru smiled as the gun's sharp report ricocheted throughout the chamber, blood spurting slightly from the still standing Kouga who now swayed lifelessly before him, eyes rolling upwards as they filmed over into silent oblivion. Sesshoumaru placed the gun back in its holster on his belt, gently blowing on Kouga's carcass, laughing as it fell to the floor with a sickening thud, blood pooling from underneath in great puddles.  
  
Turning, he walked back towards the pedestal, easily stepping over Souta to reach his large throne-like chair. Sighing, he placed his head in his hands. He pressed a button on his belt, watching as a single woman walked out from behind a large door to his right, graceful and demure in her long flowered kimono.  
  
"Yes, Lord Sesshoumaru?" she asked, black hair falling from it's do.  
  
"Kagura, get Kouga out of here, he's bleeding all over my carpet."  
  
"Yes, Lord Sesshoumaru."  
  
Turning she walked over to the dead man, who was gradually becoming stiffer by the moment as cells in his body died from lack of oxygen. With ease, she hefted his bloody form, causing the red river to run down her own back. She walked quickly back through the door she came, with not another word.  
  
A few moments of absolute silence reigned over the hall, Sesshoumaru taking in deep breaths of air as a thoughtful looked came over his face.  
  
"Souta?" he questioned towards the prone form on the bottom of the three steps "What do you say to killing Inuyasha?"  
  
"Wonderful....my lord." the carcass whimpered. "It would make me feel a whole lot better."  
  
Sesshoumaru laughed. "Well my friend, let's get you to a hospital room. We will discuss our attack on Inuyasha further when you too stop gushing blood and pus all over my floor."  
  
===============  
  
"This is the THIRD TIME in less than TWO DAYS THAT I'VE BEEN PRATICALLY MAULED BY A BUNCH OF RAVING LUNATICS!" Kagome screeched, her vocal chords hurting from the abuse of Inuyasha's hands. She heaved as she tried to regain her breath.  
  
"FIRST YOU KIDNAP ME, THEN YOU BRING ME TO SOME FREAKING CRAZY HOUSE WITH BUTT-GRABBING MEN AND DANGEROUS WOMEN, I HAVE A BROKEN ANKLE, AND ARM, AND NOW A RING OF BRUISES AROUND MY NECK. WHY THE HELL AM I HERE?"  
  
She stared as the silver haired goon before her stuttered in amazement, watching her like she was some kind of mutant freakazoid (that was a really cool show btw). He was slumped on the floor, nose still bleeding from where her casted foot had hit its mark in the middle of his handsome visage. He was lost for an answer, obviously. The girl supporting her was gradually inching away, eyes wide in fright at the both of them, tugging the unconscious lecher along with her foot.  
  
"I think you two are better off alone...." Sango whispered, dodging out of the way of Inuyasha, tugging Miroku and his tweety birds along as she made a dash for the opening where the doors once stood. Inuyasha didn't even try to stop her, the shock on his features from being screamed at by one of his own servants unnerving him to no end.  
  
"I reiterate...." came the low, hysterical voice "Why the HELL am I here? Why am I not rotting in a dungeon like my brother?! Huh? You think I can't take it cuz I'm a girl or something? Well let me tell YOU something shit face, I don't APPRECIATE being KNOCKED AROUND! I'm not butch girl with muscles who can bench 500 pounds! I'm A MODEL DAMMIT! I'm not made for CRAP like this! So you either get to the point ugly, or I'll........"  
  
She hardly noticed the deep growl coming from her quarry, who no longer quivered on the floor from her violent outbursts. He was snarling like a rabid animal, eyes glaring at her like she was a smaller, yappy animal that needed to be taken down the food chain a few notches. She yelped when he pushed her back into the wall, his body flush with hers as his bloody red eyes came within inches of her. Her breath hitched in her throat, as his hot breath flooded over her senses. She gasped out loud as he pinned her arms above her head, holding her back with the mere pressure of his weight against hers.  
  
"You're right, little Miss Bitchy, you are a model." he all but growled, as he brought his damaged nose closer to her, sniffing her essence in with deep gulps. She quivered, absolute terror taking over her once haughty features. "That's right, fear. That's what I wanted to see."  
  
She whimpered as he growled even louder, the vicious tone making her almost sob as she tried to keep all the emotions she was going through inside. "You see, Ms. Bitch, I had to put you in your place." She shuddered as he continued. "Do you remember that promise, do YOU?" he rumbled dangerously. "I AM your MASTER, and you WILL NOT disobey me." She nodded meekly, eyes lowering in a more demure fashion.  
  
His hand shot out, lifting her chin to a level equal with his own. "That does not mean, however, that you can not know your purpose here. Your job will be the greatest of all, as it will truly lead to the downfall of........"  
  
================  
  
OHOHOHOHO! Now it's getting good huh? Yes, I am now back on the plot. Next chapter we get back on track totally, no more side ventures. Chapter 7 was more or less my chance to write something stupid for once. I'm already in the process of writing my next I/K fan fiction, because I want to finish it before I post it. So I figured I'd post the first paragraph and ask everybody's opinion on it.  
  
================  
  
Closed.  
  
How could it be?  
  
Closed.  
  
Kagome's heart thudded in her chest, each beat resounding loudly throughout her ears. Her head swam. It...Couldn't be.  
  
Not now.  
  
Not when she needed it most.  
  
The portal to the realm of Faerie was closed.  
  
=================  
  
Catch your interest? It's kinda vague, but it gets better, trust me! Well gotta at least pat me on the back for once, I got two chappies out in under two weeks! R/R - LK 


	9. Chapter 9

Beast   
  
Chapter 9  
  
================  
  
A/N: Hey ya'll! I'm am sooo sorry it took so long to get this chapter out! My computer BROKE for just about the whole month of July, and by the time I got it back, it was back to school time, so I haven't had ANY time to write at all. I'm starting this the day before I get off for Labor Day weekend. Four days of freedom.....Ahhhhh.......This chapter should clear up lots of stuff with the characters, and we'll find out just why Kagome is so important to Inuyasha.....Annndd...more of the Shinchinintai make an appearance......  
  
================  
  
Sesshoumaru groaned in agony, sheets twisted around his lithe form, sweat dripping from his skin, tattoos highly visible in the moonlight streaming through the small slit like windows of he and Rin's bed chambers. His skin........it was on fire.........eating him from the inside out like some sort of worm. Sores had appeared on his back once again.......DAMN that Suikotsu...........he had sworn that the medicine would last longer this time.......the stupid ass wuss of a doctor.........Rin hadn't come in yet.......and he didn't want her to.   
  
Damn, he was so weak.  
  
He could almost hear his bones screaming in agony as he tried to sit up, the movement infuriating the pussy gouges that had opened on his back, each one oozing a strange black liquid mixed with pieces of rotting flesh, the holes exuding a smell that stank of rotting bodies.....HELL, he was rotting.....he reached, weakly, with the strength of a newborn babe towards the sheath of his sword. His hand barely clasped the long loop.....the blade sliding out of its sheath like water. He took it in one hand......he would dig the miasma out on his own if he had to dammit..........His hands shook horribly as he tried to lift the sword, getting ready to impale a sore on his stomach, its bubbling mass extending an inch off of his body.......shit........he bit his lip, blood dripping down his face...  
  
And collapsed.  
  
=================  
  
Inuyasha froze, golden eyes wide with horror at the thought of that which he had almost disclosed to this, twiggy little bitch of a girl. He couldn't explain, the horror, god she would despise him.......hell she probably already despised him........it wouldn't hurt would it.....or could it? What if the information fell in the wrong hands........hell hath no fury like that of his half-brother.......Se.......Sesshoumaru.......he shuddered involuntarily, eyes glinting red as he dug his claws into the wall behind her, their thick stone breaking easily under the mere power of his fingers, long cracks running up the granite surface, leaving pieces of debris to fall from the mosaic ceiling. He could tell her about the disorder, right? That involved her very flesh and blood, which was probably rotting in an operating room having his arms hacked off by that beast of a queer, Jakotsu. He thanked the gods that he hadn't lost the alliance of Bankotsu....he was too powerful to be an enemy.......A thick growl began to erupt in the back of his throat as he tried to ignore the pain from the boils on his back......tried to ignore the seeping mess that was dripping down his body to puddle on the floor around his captive's feet, his miasma enriched blood allowing them to continuously heal, but aggravating none the less, as more and more continued to spew their juices through his tan skin.   
  
"You.........", god what should he say?! "You........are important, bitch." he snarled, eyes almost crossing as a particularly large sore popped, the acidic contents burning his skin, causing grooves where new jagged scars would form in thirty minutes. He watched her face, and would have been almost AMUSED if she hadn't of looked like a demon from hell ready to suck his soul out of his body while castrating him.   
  
"You can't just tell me that, you......you..........mangy mutt! I want an explanation, and I want it NOW!" Kagome shouted, her face a brilliant shade of red as she tried to squirm her way out of her beast master's hold. It was to no avail, only making him lean on her more, his mouth inches away from her skin, ears pinned to his skull as he awaited the end of her tirade. She stiffened as his voice came inches from her ear, his hot breath making her body jump as he whispered sinisterly, "Do you really want to know?"   
  
Kagome whimpered as his mouth gently closed over her ear lobe, nibbling with too sharp fangs, small pricks of blood appearing on her tender skin, his rough tongue licking the small openings sensuously. Despite his minstrations, she still battled viciously almost ignoring, his rough voice as it came into hearing range again as he reiterated his latter phrase with a deep throated, "Well?"   
  
"Y...yes." She stammered, still vainly trying to pull herself from his grasp, tired of standing on her broken ankle.   
  
"Then figure it out for yourself." he snarled, releasing the small amount of pressure he had been using to pin her to the wall, allowing her to collapse into a heap on the floor. Turning on one heel, he stormed from the room, pus streaming from his back, leaving indentations on the floor where it dripped due to its potency. Kagome stared after him, faced flushed, totally confused, and........her hand reached tentatively towards the nearest pit in the floor, where those nasty holes in her master's back had dripped, her thin and chipped manicured nails touching the surface gently. A small jolt shocked her body as her fingers made contact with the pit, an almost pink light exuding from her nails as the marred surface of the rock once again became whole.  
  
She yanked her hand back quickly, gently cradling it against her body. What the hell had just happened?  
  
================  
  
Suikotsu swore violently as he stared at the results from the latest tests of Lord Sesshoumaru's blood. If the cells continued to multiply as they were....god....his skin would rot right off his body. And all this for a supposedly perfect jewel.....He had meticulously researched the origins of the black death, miasma, created by an insane scientist named Naraku. There were no records of it having ever existed.  
  
There were no tests, charts, sources....there was nothing.   
  
Hell, there weren't even records on the creator. Where could he have gone? I mean, he had to have existed, hadn't he?   
  
If only Souta had succeeded. If only they had the girl.  
  
She could save them all.  
  
=================  
  
Kagura snarled as she heaved the stinking corpse that had once been a young man named Kouga into the large canals that ran underneath the city streets of the massive neocropolis of Jinmega, located on the continent Atlantean. Recently discovered, it had blossomed into a realm where wealth decided all. Only the richest of the rich, the elite of the universe, could even breathe this air without paying a pricey sum. Lord Sesshoumaru....wait, why was she calling him LORD? Easy. Because he paid her to do so, owned a high-rise. She didn't even want to think about how much blood money her master had obtained. However, it couldn't be more than that of......  
  
She turned abruptly on one heel, shedding her outer kimono, now ruined by the blood of the murdered on it. She shook her black hair free of its messy bun, her eerie red eyes glinting dangerously in the moonlight. The black leotard top she wore underneath fit her like a second skin, leaving her back bare to the waist. A skirt made of thin strips of black fabric hung loosely, blowing freely in the easy going breeze. Carefully, she unfolded a bolt of black cloth, a fan appearing in her hand from the interior. Smiling sinisterly, she wrapped the black silk like a cloak around her upper shoulders, allowing it to flow freely down her back.  
  
She unfolded her fan gently, admiring its blood red pattern as she touched its sharp metal blades, a drop of black blood rising to the surface of her injured finger. She turned quickly, and continued walking, in the opposite direction of her "Lord's" compound. As she walked, her improvised cloak flew forward, an ominous wind following her to her new destination as it revealed the pale bare skin on her back.  
  
There, in the center, was a spider tatoo.   
  
============  
  
A/N: Well, whadya think? Sorry, I didn't explain everything I said I would this chappy, but I'm just glad I got nine out! *Smiles all huge and stuff* I've got two mores fics I'm working on, and I'm hoping that this one will help me get totally back on the track I kinda wandered off of. This chappy is also kinda short ^_^ sorry bout that. I'll write a longer one next time. Oh yeah, here's my misc comment for the A/N. The Magic Knight Rayearth English voices suck. Just had to say that! LOL! R&R purdy puhhhllleeeasse! – Lunar Kitty 


	10. Chapter 10

Beast  
  
Chapter 10  
  
Hi! Sorry folks, but the next chapter of Beast won't be out for a while! My hand got smashed up by my friend's horse this week, tearing muscles in my writing hand. Thus, making it extremly hard for me to type, play PS2, write in any shape, form or fashion, and I can't ride my horsies. *Sobs* However! I did put my new story 'Life After Death' up, which is the total opposite of Beast, and has Inuyasha in a business suit with rolled up sleves *drools* or at least it will. It's an A/U just like this one, and Kagome works for the Emergency Squad! Interesting, ne? *Laughs hysterically as sister Keruseyu loses again on the Inuyasha game, then dodges angry sibling's cup* Okay, soooo.....go read my new story pretty pretty please!!!!! *Smiles really big and eats a swirly Hershey Kiss* Just so you'll know, it's taken me about thirty minutes to type this with one hand. Oh and one more suggestion to my readers: Go read the mangas Wish and Dragon Knights! They ROCK! *Lunar Kitty loves Lord Lykouleon more than anybody else....Rath is close 2nd though! And Kaistern.......... :) :) :) :) :)* 


	11. Chapter 11

Beast Chapter 11  
  
A/N: Oh my goodness! LOOK WHO'S BACK IN ACTION!! HAHAHAHA! Alrighty folks, get ready for the newest chapter in the long saga of Beast! And a rather long and interesting author's note cuz I've done so much stuff lately! Well I've gone to two horse shows and won ten ribbons, had a severe concussion and had temporary short term memory loss, got my driver's license, ummm.......what else? LOL! I got screwed over on my All County Band tryouts by the nazu *lol my beta Lizbet came up with that one* flute judge, and now I've written two more stories, one of which is finished, just not all posted (Death be not Proud) and a new humor story, Life after Death. GO READ THEM! My hand is doing great, and thanks to all the people who emailed me wishing me well! *sniffles* I was very touched. I've got a chemistry quiz tomorrow, and I'm absolutely exhausted, so I've got to write fast so I can get to bed before ten thirty.........ARGH! Okay, ttyateotc - LK  
  
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Kagome groaned in boredom as she lay her head on the cold marble surface of her dining nook's table. It had been two weeks since she'd seen any signs of life in this god forsaken hell hole besides Sango and her hentai shadow Miroku. Her "master" hadn't shown his sorry ass around the castle at all. A fact for which she was glad. She still didn't know why the hell they needed her here, and with no contact with the outside world even near a point from which she could access it, she was left with no option but to stay put. She couldn't even try to escape because one, she was still hurt, and two she'd never get out of this compound in one piece. Inuyasha had the security too tight. There was just no way....  
  
She rolled her eyes towards the ceiling of her new room, yes, another new room. It had been exquisitely painted with a detailed pointillism interpretation of an alien galaxy. The black backdrop was dotted with brilliant, gleaming stars, and planets, frozen in orbit floated in the vast expanse. The whole room was black, save the deep red of her silk bed sheets. A large Victorian style armoir stood in a corner, filled to the brim with her ever enlarging wardrobe.  
  
With a sigh akin to exasperation, Kagome stood up gingerly on her foot, enjoying the fact that the horse pill sized pain killers Sango had procured for helping her with her injuries didn't allow a single twinge of pain to hit her nervous system. For all she knew, they were probably illegal drugs.......Laughing silently to herself, she made her way to the bookshelf to pick out another lengthy volume that could possible entertain her limp noodle brain.  
  
She had just selected a well worn copy of 'Jane Eyre' off of the shelf when a loud rapping came upon her door. Leaving the book on her bedside table, she shuffled over to her improvised crutches. When she managed to get them situated beneath her arms, she made her way carefully across the litter strewn room, her clothes having been thrown all over the place in one of her maddening fits of rage against her care taker Miroku. Placing all her weight on her good leg, she managed to crack the heavy door open slightly to see who was outside her room.  
  
It was Miroku.  
  
"What do you want?" she asked, her voice slightly snappish.  
  
"Inuyasha wishes to know if you'll join us for dinner."  
  
"How many times do I have to tell you NO?" she hissed, eyes vicious with rage.  
  
"Look, he's not that bad of a gu.."  
  
Kagome slammed her book down on the floor violently, almost falling off her crutches in the process.  
  
"Not such a bad guy?!" she shrieked "Are you KIDDING ME?".  
  
"No.." he said in a slightly jumpy tone, warily watching her crutches for any sign of movement. He'd been on the receiving end of a blow from those babies, and he didn't want to encounter them again any time soon. "He's great once you get to know him."  
  
"In what universe? I mean, he won't tell me ANYTHING about the reason I'm here! I mean, how much can I take? My fate is in the hands of some madman who found it fitting to slam me up against a wall and crack the ceiling while he threatened me! I want some answers, NOW DAMMIT! Why was my brother in pieces when I found him? Why must I spend my days locked in this room like a bird in a cage? I have no one to talk to all day unless Sango is off on a break for whatever she does around this hell hole!"  
  
"Then why don't you come down and talk to Inuyasha at dinner?"  
  
"Because he won't say anything back!"  
  
"That's because you aren't asking him about something he cares about."  
  
"That just makes me not want to go downstairs even more."  
  
"Look, ask him about the weather, or shoes, Inuyasha loves shoes!"  
  
"Why can't I know anything about my purpose? Neither you nor Sango will tell me anything, and if a word even slips out that could possibly be taken into any context other than general conversation, you leave the room! Am I going to be ritually sacrificed or something? What is GOING ON HERE?! Not to mention that there's a snowball's chance in hell that Inuyasha would respond to a question about shoes anyways..."  
  
"Kagome, you really need to calm down." Miroku said, "The doctor said you shouldn't be getting yourself riled up, you need to rest so your injuries will heal."  
  
"Yes that's another good question I've been pondering in my mind." She replied, "Why do my injuries need to heal so quickly? What am I needed intact for that is so important?"  
  
"Saving Inu...." Miroku stopped mid-sentence, flinging his hands over his mouth as he hurriedly bowed to Kagome and turned around to high tail it off the scene, only to have one of Kagome's crutches go air borne and smash into his retreating body, smacking him down to the floor of the ante- chamber outside of the inner doors of Kagome's room. Miroku cursed into the marble as he tried to see if the direct hit to his spine had paralyzed him or not. Just as he was managing to bring himself to his feet, a cast clad foot slammed down on his side, effectively pinning him to the floor. He looked up into the now very scary face of Kagome, who grinned almost evilly as she realized that she now had the upper hand. He grimaced as she voiced the question he knew was coming, but was definitely not on his agenda to answer.  
  
"So Miroku" Kagome purred "Just what were you getting ready to tell me?"  
  
=================  
  
Inuyasha growled as he sat in the large and very uncomfortable high backed chair at the head of his dining room table. Sango sat to his immediate left, looking over plans and diagrams of the lab they were planning to infiltrate. In front of him sat a large chunk of an almost raw steak, liberally slated in some secret sauce of the chef who made the meal. Miroku was taking his damn time bringing the girl down from her room. He turned to Sango, who had her fork halfway to her mouth as she stared at a particularly sketchy diagram obtained from some back woods hacker who had once worked for the crazed lunatic.  
  
"Well?" he demanded, ripping a chunk of meat off with his claws and bringing it up to his mouth, careful not to spill anything on his skin tight black muscle shirt that revealed the numerous scars and sores on his upper and lower arms.  
  
"I can't really tell, Inuyasha." She replied, bringing a pencil out of her pocket to make some markings on a large blue print spread out in the middle of the humongous dining table.  
  
"I mean, it lays out the security functions very well, which you shouldn't have any problems with to begin with, but the lab is in your brother's compound, and that's where the problem lies."  
  
"I don't give a shit if I have to go to hell and back to get the formula" he hissed "As long as I can get rid of this, this, plague I don't care!"  
  
"You do realize that the process will put the girl in some amount of danger, do you not?"  
  
"I know, but she's tough stuff. She can take a licking and keep on ticking. She's obviously related to her sorry ass brother, who just never seems to die."  
  
"Intelligence says that Sesshoumaru had that crack pot of a doctor Suikotsu and that other guy working for him, Renkotsu to fix him up like the bionic bunny. Said he's even better than before."  
  
"Keh" he snarled, "It's not like it'll make it any harder to kill him."  
  
"That's another thing I've been wondering. Why didn't you kill him when you had him here, at the mercy of those septic claws of yours, which by the way, I can't believe you're eating with."  
  
"It's not like they have any effect on me, but I would think you of all people would have realized why I kept him alive."  
  
"Okay, enough with the well worded slams to my intelligence factor, just tell me."  
  
"Because if I had killed him, where would the girl be?"  
  
Sango cocked her head to the side as if she was confused, thinking the process over in her head cautiously. "I'm not sure what you're trying to get across to me here Inuyasha, please elaborate."  
  
He coughed in impatience as he continued "If I had killed her brother, the girl would have probably gone into shock or respiratory failure. She'd be of no use to us. She'd probably still be upstairs rocking back and forth in some dark corner of her mind where no one could reach her any longer. She'd have cracked."  
  
"Just because her brother died?"  
  
"Sango, what did you do when you thought your brother was going to die?" he murmured, golden eyes watching her with a look of cunning.  
  
"I sold my life away." She replied "and even though it's not bad to stay here and work here, even though you do get involved in some pretty nasty stuff Inuyasha, I still sometimes wish I could just be home with my family, with no worries, planning a career in music like I always wanted."  
  
"That's the other thing." Inuyasha said "She has no other family members besides her brother."  
  
"Seriously?" Sango responded, eyes growing huge "What happened to them?"  
  
"Well from what I heard from Souta when he first joined the gang to get money for the wench's tuition, their father died when they were both in elementary school, leaving them homeless due to debt. They had to move into their grandfather's small shrine just outside the main city of Tokyo in Japan."  
  
"I can't believe you know this much about her." She said.  
  
"Souta and I used to chat a lot when he first joined, until he joined my brother's faction and left me with my small group." He snarled, poison almost dripping off the word 'brother'.  
  
"No wonder you had such a horrible past with your brother. Were you always competing?"  
  
"Okay, look shrink, I don't have time to talk about me, I'm talking about the bitch, so don't try to pry into my personal life, you hear me?" he hissed, baring his fangs slightly at his consort, maddened by the fact that she would even try to pry information from him concerning the one topic he had no desire to discuss.  
  
"I'm sorry." She said, quickly dropping her eyes back down to the plans to avoid the golden eyes staring daggers into her skin.  
  
"As I was saying..." he coughed, grabbing another piece of meat and a boiled potato off his plate on the same hand, skewering each on his claws as he continued to eat.  
  
Sango waited patiently as he chewed, wondering if he chewed 24 times before swallowing. He gulped a little wine from his crystal glass and dropped it back to the table, not even bothering with a napkin as his rough dog-like tongue lapped up the excess from around his mouth, carefully avoiding the sharp fangs that could easily tear their owner's skin just as quickly as anyone else's. Inuyasha continued with a flourish of his now messy and slightly gooey hands his voice slightly crackly due to the amount of sauce that he had just swallowed.  
  
"She doesn't have any family because of my lovely older sibling."  
  
"Sesshoumaru killed her family?"  
  
"Yes, and fooled that ass Souta into believing that I was the one responsible for the killings by planting some half-crapped list of names that I was supposedly going to knock off as I went along. I'm surprised Souta didn't see the one mistake that I did."  
  
"There was a mistake on the list?"  
  
"Um, yes, otherwise I wouldn't be talking about it, now would I?" he querried, Sango blushing and mumbling something about her mother being blond....He laughed a little his ears twitching from side to side trying to listen for Miroku as he hopefully returned with the girl.  
  
"So what was the mistake?" Sango asked, interrupting him from his momentary lapse of attention span from their conversation to a completely different matter.  
  
"He put Kagura's name on the list."  
  
"How is that significant?"  
  
"First of all, I didn't even know that Sesshoumaru had a hit man, wait, hit woman on his team that powerful at the time, seeing as I hadn't been around for about two years when I finally came back from hades to the living world thanks to Kaede. Unfortunately for my former "comrades" I came back with little control on my new mutated blood, which of course, resulted in the lovely blood bath I enjoyed wallowing in when I ambushed a small party of Sesshoumaru's gang outside one of his downtown high rises." He paused for a moment to catch his breath, wondering how in the world he had managed to pull that sentence off without his almost demonic side putting its sardonic spin on it all.  
  
"However, Sesshoumaru only has himself to blame for his newfound agony and pain. A thing I can easily bare with my enhanced blood, but an ailment that debilitates and enrages the very skin he lives in, making it ooze like mine, only ten times worse."  
  
"So basically, he's been using Souta the whole time to get at his sister?"  
  
"Now you're getting the picture...."  
  
======================  
  
A/N: Sorry it's so short, I decided that would be a good place to stop. The official chapter eleven will be coming out soon too. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, because I sure did! I got a puppy, but unfortunately, she has a viral infection right now, and is very sick, so I'm hoping she'll get better soon....I did get a bunch of DVDs and three new games though! My favorite so far being SSX3, go buy it, it's awesome, though I think I might like the SSX Tricky Format just a little better. My sister got .hack//sign Infection the game, and we watched the DVD part, and boy are we lost! Does it continued on the second game or something? I have no idea personally. I'm hoping this story is starting to make more sense, and that the true plot is starting to shine through. I'm going to try to finish writing this story soon, I'm so sorry it took so long to get out, I just had such a hard semester at school and things that I haven't had time to write much on this story. Well R/R please!! - LK 


	12. Chapter 12

Beast Chapter 12 By: Lunar Kitty  
  
==========  
  
A/N: Okay, new chappie! I'm finishing another story that I'm going to post in its entirety week by week when I finish the next few chapters. It's going to be good. As soon as I'm done with that one, Beast will be finished, followed by LaD. DBNP is finished, very little reviews received, but I enjoyed writing it, so that's good. I hope this chapter will sate you over until school gets out...ish...I have a three year old half-arabian gelding to train this summer so he'll be ready for the big State Fair arab show this fall. I'll be posting more about him soon. Anyways, here goes! Tell me what you think! R/R Please! – LK  
  
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"So let me get this straight" Kagome said, her foot ever so gently pressing on Miroku's throat as she leaned all her weight onto his chest. His face was beet red, and he looked like an aneurysm was coming on at any moment. "Inuyasha has a horrible auto-immune disease that causes his cells to explode and rupture his skin in festering boils."  
  
Miroku nodded, a tiny squeak coming out of his mouth as she moved one of her crutches into striking range.  
  
"And in order to cure himself from this disease, he must extract a special immune system pathogen from my blood and turn it into a vaccine."  
  
Miroku squeaked again.  
  
"Thus he will be cured, and then he will be free to terrorize the sane and happy world with his manically deranged tendencies?"  
  
Another squeak.  
  
"Was that a 'no' squeak or a 'yes' squeak?" she queried, eyes narrowing dangerously. Miroku managed to talk around her foot carefully, as he croaked "Well, he wants to destroy his brother, Sesshoumaru."  
  
"Why?" At that very moment, an enraged howl came from somewhere else in the building, causing Kagome to jump, her toes kicking Miroku in the shin. Groaning, he managed to take her distraction to his advantage, and flipped their positions, easily pinning her to the floor as he whispered, "And that's all you're going to get out of me missy."  
  
Suddenly, the doors to the room swung open, and a violent looking red-eyed Inuyasha stormed in, a bullet hole bleeding openly from his shoulder. "Get the bitch and let's blow this Popsicle stand." He growled, loading a large and menacing looking automatic assault rifle.  
  
"What's going on?" Miroku gasped, barely catching the pistols that Inuyasha threw his way.  
  
"Damn Souta, he's started up some kinda botched ambush attempt from the outside. Sango's trying to hold them off, but the youkai squadron ditched with Kouga when he took Higurashi back to my crazy ass brother."  
  
"My brother is here?" Kagome shrieked.  
  
A huge explosion rocked one side of the colossus that was Inuyasha's fortress.  
  
"Yup" Inuyasha said.  
  
"I'm guessing Sango just pulled out the big guns." Miroku whispered.  
  
"Let's hope so."  
  
Inuyasha whirled, pulling a leather coat out of a nearby armoire that Kagome hadn't even had time to explore yet. He tossed it to Miroku, and then pulled two more out, giving one to Kagome while he placed the other on his back.  
  
He pulled a vicious looking sword from above the fireplace, one that Kagome hadn't even noticed before and slung it across his back bare, with no sheath to cover its chipped and tetanus infested rusted length. The pommel and handle were wrapped with well worn leather, but the only thing that seemed new was the string, colored the red of blood, the red that was dripping down Inuyasha's back as he walked towards a small closet door on the other side of the room.  
  
Kagome, still holding her coat, let out a small scream as Miroku suddenly threw her over his back, letting her hang upside down as he pulled an explosive from a chest she hadn't been able to open, and planted it right below the door knob. Inuyasha had since then opened the closet, and reached in to pull on a non-descript shoe box that sat on the top.  
  
As if it was magic, a small podium like box pushed out of the bottom of the closet. Inuyasha stepped on it, followed by Miroku and his cargo.  
  
"Computer, level one please" Inuyasha murmured, an astonished Kagome looking on in awe as the floor suddenly sank beneath them. Miroku remained silent the entire time, only moving when the building rocked once more under the heavy fire-fight going on above them.  
  
The trip seemed to go on forever, but soon ended as a small 'ding' sounded.  
  
"Level One Docking Sequence Complete" a monotone voice blurbed over small speakers located next to the door they were now standing in front of.  
  
The three passengers stepped off as soon as the doors whooshed open, another voice echoing into the large white room they had just stepped into. "Welcome Master Inuyasha"  
  
Inuyasha, silver hair hanging in a loose braid down his back with a large utility belt strapped around him walked over towards a large door that looked like a garage. He lifted it easily with the handle on the bottom, sending it skyward and revealing a most interesting subject behind it.  
  
It was a concept car that Kagome had only seen in Science Magazine. Able to go faster than formula one built in with the amazing ability to hover up to 1000 feet off the ground. It was a dark rich purple with tinted windows. Inuyasha touched the doorknob, and hydraulics pushed them upwards and sideways. The seats slid forward as he moved his hand back and forth. He turned and rudely grabbed Kagome from Miroku, tossing her unceremoniously into a trunk like backseat.  
  
He climbed in the driver's side, waiting until Miroku managed to climb in the car without setting off anything before pressing a button to shut the doors.  
  
Kagome searched in vain for a seatbelt, sure that she was probably in for a helluva ride, but was unsuccessful. Inuyasha laughed crazily as he looked at her through his rear view mirror. "You're already dead anyways, so why bother?"  
  
She looked up sharply at him, wondering what he meant by that statement, and was alarmed by the abstruse looked that appeared on Miroku's face. She tried to read his expression, but was cut off as he pulled on a pair of sunglasses.  
  
"Computer" Inuyasha said. "Open, Code 5867"  
  
"Code 5867 initialized. Have a nice trip, Master Inuyasha"  
  
"Who the hell programmed this thing?" he asked.  
  
Just as he spoke, the car spun as the garage floor lifted up, pushing them towards the ceiling. Kagome cringed farther down into her seat, confused and scared of what was going on.  
  
"We're going to have to go ahead with the plan without Sango, Miroku"  
  
"She'll make it!" he hissed back.  
  
"I know she will, but we can't afford a delay like this. Sesshoumaru knows we have her and Souta's on the war path. Eventually they will catch up, and I'll be damned if I'll let that son of a bitch of a brother of mine dominate my life, and take my cure. I need it more that he does, the bastard. He can wait his fucking turn!"  
  
Just as he spoke those words, the ceiling lifted off the garage, revealing a parking deck with a ramp leading up onto the bottom floor. Inuyasha slammed the car into drive, flooring it as gunfire poured in from all around.  
  
Kagome peered through the windows, ducking as she saw Inuyasha mowing down men that seemed to be trying to stop their car. She swore to god she saw her brother, but it may have just been her imagination. A bullet suddenly lodged itself in the window beside her head, the thick, obviously reinforced glass saving her from any harm.  
  
The engine revved once again, and suddenly they were airborne, and she finally got a good look at her prison. She turned back to stare at a relatively small looking Chateau surrounded by a dense forest, fire engulfing the surrounding area with a vengeance. Breathing deeply, she tried to get over the shock of seeing blood dripping from the car's windshield as Inuyasha swore, turning on the wipers.  
  
Drawing a deep breath, she mustered up the courage to whisper four little words that would change her life forever.  
  
"So what's the plan?"  
  
============  
  
A/N: That's all for now folks. I had someone ask me for an update, so I figured I'd go ahead and put this chapter up so I don't completely stop the story for now. I'm working really hard on the new story, called 'High Hurdles'. It should be out very soon; depending on how long it takes me to get it beta-read and stuff. Well I gotta go to sleep, I have to get up and feed my horse at 5:25 tomorrow morning. R/R Pretty please! – LK  
  
P.S. It'll be longer next time, I promise!! 


	13. Chapter 13

Beast Chapter 13 By: Lunar Kitty  
  
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A/N: Hello folks! I've gotten a bunch of reviews about my use of ellipses. Yes I do know how to use them, and if you notice, they gradually have gone away as the story progressed. I did revise chapter three, and I was going to revise the others, but I decided that it wasn't worth my time at the moment because I'm tired. My mom broke her arm yesterday when she was roller skating and I had to drive her to the hospital because the Urgent Cares were all closed. I was at the hospital until 12:10 A.M. and then I had to get up at 5:30 to feed my horse. I also have an AP exam tomorrow and I stayed too long at the barn because one of our horses was colicking and we had to call the vet out to tube him and give him some bantamine. I have to get a bottle of that stuff... Oh well, on with Beast!  
  
P.S. Big thanks to Dustin for info. On scary pieces of arsenal!  
  
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Kagome stared as Inuyasha pulled out a large and very frightening looking weapon from the long black gun safe in front of her.  
  
"This" he said, "Is the AR-15. It's a 5.56 mm gun that holds thirty rounds."  
  
Miroku was practically drooling over the shiny black metal, but he had already received a 629 "Stealth Hunter" SmithWesson from the safe only moments before, and was busy loading it with as many rounds he could fit into it.  
  
"So how powerful is that thing?" Kagome asked, her foot, almost completely healed now, propped up on a box of some sort of explosive that sat off to the side. Miroku and Inuyasha froze, eyes widening as they turned to stare at her. Inuyasha's face turned deadly as a vicious smirk appeared on his face. He quickly reached into the ammunition box at his own side and loaded the gun with a swiftness that was almost frightening. Lifting it up, he turned and fired the gun quickly, blowing the head off of a nearby dusty statue bust of Shakespeare.  
  
Kagome's eyes widened. "Whoa..." she whispered.  
  
"Whoa is right bitch." Inuyasha snarled "And you'd better watch it! Don't pull any funny shit or I'll shoot you so full of holes you'll look like a freaking colander."  
  
With this he swung the gun in her direction, eyes narrowing as he stared at her now quivering form. "Anyways you little wench, you're going to need something to fight with as well."  
  
"Fight?" she asked, face going pale.  
  
"Yes imbecile" Inuyasha snarled, "Fight. Repeat after me: Fi-ght."  
  
Kagome rolled her eyes and flicked him off, squeaking out a "Fuck You" eliciting a hoot from Miroku, and a sexy growl from Inuyasha "Maybe we can try that a little later bitch."  
  
Kagome blushed scarlet as she tried not to think of the mental image that just popped in her head. If it hadn't been for the oozing pus ridden sores, she might not have minded a little romp in the hay with Inuyasha. He was a very fine specimen of a mutated and corrupt syndicate lord if she did say so herself.  
  
Miroku lifted up one eyebrow at her as he watched her glance Inuyasha up and down. Inuyasha had his back to her, and he stared in an amused fashion as Kagome gave it a once over, glanced at the ceiling, then drew her eyes back to the tight ass that Inuyasha happened to possess. He then smacked himself for thinking that Inuyasha had a tight ass. It was slightly disturbing.  
  
Inuyasha had grabbed a large case of electronic explosives that they were supposed to be planting in the air ducts at Sesshoumaru's corporation. The two brother's were suffering from a viral anti-immune disease cause from exposure to the illegal chemical Miasma. Sesshoumaru, not having the mutated genes because he only had had limited contact with the green ooze had never exhibited the tolerance and strength that Inuyasha had to live with the debilitating illness.  
  
He stole an amber-eyed glance back at Kagome, his keen eyesight clearly picking up the pink aura that floated serenely around her body. She was going to save his ass, and it was all cause by her brother, albeit indirectly.  
  
Due to the encounter with the Miasma, Souta had desperately tried to find an antibiotic that would protect his family from the spores that could leave his own body and enter their own, possibly causing death. He had spoken to Suikotsu about it, and had been excited to discover that the newly lab manufactured cure for acute AIDS could also reverse the process.  
  
He had to have it.  
  
Without Sesshoumaru's permission, he had broken into the laboratory and managed to get his hands on some of the expensive antidote. Unfortunately, he was the only one to get out alive. Inuyasha had been watching the building, and had had a syndicate team patrolling the area. Souta had obviously either not given a shit he'd been shot five times, and had pulled out a flamethrower and torched the crew hiding in the topiary bushes outside the front doors.  
  
Although Inuyasha had not desperately needed the cure for the disease, Sesshoumaru, who was at that point only showing early signs of it did. When he discovered that Souta had given the only dose to his sister and family, he vowed to punish Souta for his love for his family, and so he did.  
  
He killed his parents, he tried to do away with his sister more than once, and every time Souta was told that Inuyasha was behind it all. Oh yes, just let everybody blame it on Inuyasha...the bastard.  
  
Then he sent Souta on a suicide mission, to "capture" Inuyasha and make him pay for his transgressions so his sister would not be harmed. Bull shit.  
  
Kouga had been paid to rough Kagome up and bring her immediately to Sesshoumaru, but Inuyasha, who already knew of Kouga's private dealings with his beloved mother fucker of a brother had thought ahead, and moved to intercept Kouga before he completed his mission.  
  
And he had.  
  
Kouga had been scared shitless when he saw heard the elevator ding and the footsteps running hurriedly down the hall, and had ditched. He had made up some lame ass excuse for his failure, and seeing as the traitorous mercenary hadn't been seen for a while, he supposed that his unsuccessful attempt must have caught up with him in a very unpleasant way.  
  
What he wouldn't have given to see his rotting head on a platter.  
  
He sighed, eyes glancing towards the girl. The vaccine was inside her, and Suikotsu had made the comment to Sesshoumaru about creating an anti-venom for the poison. But to create anti-venom you needed a subject already exposed along with the antigens that are created when you are vaccinated.  
  
Kagome was the girl.  
  
When she had been delivered to him in his limo that night, he hadn't known what to think. Ginta had just delivered him a blessing in disguise. The girl would save him, and Sesshoumaru would die.  
  
All he had to do was get into Sesshoumaru's fortress and steal the plans for the vaccination and anti-venom attempt. He had the scientists, now all he needed was the blood and the tonic used to purify it.  
  
The plan was going perfectly.  
  
Now if his dying body could only pull the rest of it off.  
  
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Sango growled in distaste as she vainly tried to yank the chains that held her to the stone wall behind her out of their sockets deep in the mortar. She cursed under her breath, damning Inuyasha and her habitual instinct to put him out of danger before she was hurt.  
  
This was one time she wished self-preservation had just kicked in.  
  
Now she was bleeding terribly from a scalp wound, and hanging from a wall, her toes barely touching the ground as the blood rushed out of her arms and they gradually went numb. She hoped Inuyasha had managed to continue with the plan that had devised. If Kagome would cooperate there wouldn't be any problems at all.  
  
A grating sound alerted her to the opening of her cell, and she turned her head as far as she could in her position to see Sesshoumaru and his bitch, trailed by Souta slink into the dark room. Sesshoumaru's face was drawn and pale, his eyes almost sunken in his head. His hair was stringy and damp with sweat. He swayed on his feet, but did not lessen the grip on the Smith Wesson 65LS he held in his hand. Sango couldn't help it when she suddenly blurted "DAMN Sesshoumaru, you look like SHIT!" out into the silence of the cell.  
  
Souta's expression froze from that of a stern observer to a slightly amused grimace, Rin throwing her hands over her mouth in awe that someone would speak to her lover in such a fashion.  
  
Sesshoumaru glared, his teeth baring into a fierce growl as he lifted the rifle, sliding it forward so it rested on Sango's stomach. A hit there would be painful, but not immediately deadly. She could linger on for days if it didn't hit anything terribly vital but continued to bleed. She gulped almost audibly, wishing she just hadn't stuck the proverbial foot back into her big mouth.  
  
"Now, Ms. Sango" he almost purred, eyes slitting into a visual bloodlust "Why don't you tell me what my little brother is up to..."  
  
"Why should I bastard?" she snarled, spitting in his face.  
  
The firing of a gunshot through her upper shoulder caused her to half- scream. She hadn't even noticed him move the gun. Sesshoumaru laughed as her face paled and she bit her lower lip, blood dripping down her torn clothing.  
  
"You'll have to do worse than that to make me talk, jackass." She said as her blood pooled onto the floor.  
  
"Very well"  
  
Guards outside the dungeons wince as the sounds of multiple gunshots crawled down the corridor the cells, coupled with the weak screams of a woman.  
  
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A/N: Wow, can't believe I actually got another chapter out this soon. Forgive me once again for the shortness. I would revise the rest of my story to get rid of the annoying ellipses, but unfortunately, I don't have the time. I might during the summer, depending. I'd like to finish this story within the next month, so knock on wood expect pretty much regular updates. The romance will be starting soon, hopefully. ; Well I have a make-up school day tomorrow, so I must be going! I'll write more soon if you R/R!! :D :D hint hint - Lunar Kitty 


	14. Chapter 14

Beast  
  
Chapter 14  
  
By: Lunar Kitty  
  
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A/N: Hiya folks, sorry it took so long, still haven't revised the chapters, and still haven't decided if I even want to make the effort. :P Anyways, enjoy chapter 14!!  
  
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"Awwww…FUCK!" Miroku hissed as he pulled his hand out of something slimy and sticky that smelled oddly like dog shit. Inuyasha growled in impatience as he stood on the sewer access ladder they were currently climbing down only a few rungs higher than Miroku.   
  
"Inuyasha, isn't there another way to get to your brother's hideout unnoticed? One that doesn't involve fecal matter?" Kagome asked, from her new position on his back.   
  
"Shut-up bitch, and quit whining, it's not like you're going to have to walk in it anyways."  
  
"You still didn't answer my question." she snarled, wincing as he dug his claws into her exposed legs that were currently wrapped around his waist. He smiled in satisfaction as he heard her hiss in pain.   
  
"I don't have to." he growled, his foot swinging off the ladder as he kicked Miroku in the head to give him a little incentive to get a move on and climb down the ladder. Miroku grumbled underneath his breath as he continued his decent, unable to rid himself of the stench that permeated throughout his nostrils.   
  
"Damn, it smells like something died down here." Inuyasha managed to gasp out from above as the slow decent finally came to a stop, and the light from the manhole above became naught but a pinprick in the distance.   
  
"Yeah, I know what you mean." Miroku said, his fingers over his nose as he slid into the waist-deep murk that covered the floor of the sewer system. Inuyasha slid in after him, almost laughing in satisfaction as he heard Kagome gasp in horror. He didn't know why, but this girl seemed to amuse him more than any other he had ever met. She had a certain quality of innocence, slightly shattered by the fact that he had a poster of her modeling for Sports Illustrated in a very skimpy swim suit. He liked the model part of her, feminine and slim, muscular but not overly done, long gorgeous black hair with streaks of fire red in it, along with small shades of purple that glinted in the murky light of the tunnel they slugged through. She was gorgeous. Wait a minute…did he just say she was WHAT?! He shook his head sharply, his fine hair gently smacking Kagome in the face.   
  
"Ouch, Inuyasha" Kagome hissed.   
  
"Oh come on wench, I barely touched you."   
  
"You jarred my leg dumbass."  
  
"Could you two shut up?!" Miroku snarled from in front, his gun held behind his shoulders like a commando crossing a river. Inuyasha growled violently towards the man in front of him, and silenced Kagome with the soft prickling of his claws on her legs. They carried on for what seemed like ages, and soon Kagome began to tire, despite the fact that she was being carried the entire way. She began to gaze into the dark murk, wondering what could spring out of it at any second, and if something did, would Inuyasha protect her?  
  
Just as these thoughts were running through her mind, she saw something; a hand, protruding from the muck. Her bloodcurdling scream echoed throughout the sewer, along with the semi-loud echoes of Inuyasha's curses that coincided roughly at the same time that Miroku tripped over the owner of the hand, lying in the shallows to the right of them.   
  
Inuyasha slid violently when she screamed, almost going under the river of sludge. Kagome struggled violently on his back as he growled out an impatient, "SHUT THE FUCK UP, OR SOMEONE MIGHT HEAR US!" to her, his claws digging into her sides as she squealed. She stopped momentarily, then began again, much to his dismay. Struggling valiantly, he managed to whirl her around in front of him, his hand coming out quickly to her face as he pulled her forward, his lips connecting with hers in a bruising kiss, tongue violently invading her mouth in an attempt to silence her vocal chords.   
  
Kagome gasped in the back of her throat as he kissed her, one of his hands digging into her hair and tilting her back, the other shoving her forward into him. She struggled momentarily, trying vainly to wiggle out of his hold, only to feel the claws on her back digging into her skin through her clothes, and his fangs grabbing a hold of her lip threateningly. Realizing her struggles were futile, she relaxed in his hold, half-relishing the feeling of security that slid throughout her being. He continued the kiss, his tongue grappling with her own dominantly, almost choking her with its force until her mouth began to relax along with the rest of her body muscles. She hardly felt his hand slipping down her body as she began to kiss him back, her worries and fears disappearing as his overpowering mouth ravaged her own.   
  
'Damn' Inuyasha thought as she suddenly began to slide her mouth against his own in a sensual movement, her relaxed body suddenly melding into his as Miroku dragged what seemed to be a corpse out of the water and onto the narrow sewer maintenance walkways that lay about in disarray. Seeing that his partner had everything under control, he continued his onslaught on the girl's mouth, ignoring the fact that he had begun this solely to shut her up, now enjoying the soft mewling sounds she was making in the back of her throat as he tickled the back her neck with his claws, his other hand making its way down to cup her buttocks. Just as he had enough clearance to make a grab and intensify the situation, a loud gasp rang out as she tried to jerk herself away from him, her mouth leaving his own and snarling out another yell, this one now directed at him. "WHY YOU CONIVING…"  
  
"SHUT UP!" hissed Miroku urgently, pointing skywards to the manhole directly above them, we're under Sesshoumaru's main parking deck, we're screwed if someone finds us you idiot!"   
  
Just as he finished the statement, a loud creak sounded from above, and the manhole began to slide backwards, scraping on what was obviously asphalt above. Inuyasha slunk back from the light, dragging Kagome with him, her hot and tense body crushed against his own as he tried to shield her from whatever might be coming down. He backed into a group of people directly behind him, and whirled, Miroku's choked cry coming from behind as he was hoisted up by torso and crammed through the tiny opening, a loud crack resounding from his legs as he tried to wrap them around the ladder below it to prevent his removal from the sewer. The last thing he saw was a set of blood red eyes, and large hands reaching out and snatching Kagome away from him, as he fought and struggled his hands reaching towards the girl. Snarling violently, he slid his claws into the warm flesh of his captor, relishing the sound of flesh slitting open as the owner of the body cried out in pain. Growling viciously he suddenly gasped as a gunshot rocketed off in the sewer, and looked down at a large hole in his chest, eyes wide as blood dripped into the muck below, dying it a painful shade of red. He swayed and fell forward into a set of bandaged arms, an all to familiar voice, one he had once heard screaming his name in agony hissed "Now I've got you, Inuyasha."   
  
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A/N: Sorry it's so short, I wanted to get another chapter out so I could work on the next on paper at my memaw's house, because I have to leave soon due to the fact that my parents have gone to the beach with my sister for father's day, and I have to stay so I can take care of my horses, cats, and dog. Not that I mind, I'm not very fond of the beach. The pool at the resort at the beach is another thing though…Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the update, yay for a little Kag/Inu action huh? BTW I got a new computer!!!!! It's a Compaq Presario and it has a flat panel monitor (YES), 160 gig hard drive, 512 meg of RAM, Pentium 4 processor, transfers at 3GHz, and it has a DVD BURNER! Oh joy, oh RAPTURE! huggles computer I will name it squishy and it will be my little squishy…yeah yeah yeah. Okay, g2g, sorry the update took so long! Tell me what you think! - LK  
  
P.S. Spellcheck keeps changing Inuyasha's name to "Natasha"…weird… 


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: Beast

So I haven't updated this story in ages, and I decided to finish it, wrap it up, and keep it from hanging in limbo for the rest of its life. I'm attempting to do it in one day, and then I'll update the chapters once a week. If I can top this off at 20 chapters, it should be pretty good I think. Sorry to keep everyone hanging for so long, I never realized that this had been favorited 41 times. That is a compliment in and of itself, along with the fantastic reviews I got when it was in full swing.

Please let me know what you think.

R/R – Kristen

P.S. _I'm also into "Suggested listening" (If you've read any of "Dark" my Bya/Hisa story from Bleach, I pick a song for each chapter. This chapter, is 'Down with the Sickness' by Disturbed)_

Chapter 15 – _Down with the Sickness_

* * *

Inuyasha groaned as his eyes cracked open, his chest bandaged, his arms pinned at his side by a set of metallic cuffs that 'clinked' against industrial steel as he tugged on them feebly, his wounds aching as miasma spilled from open sores into their gory centers.

His hair was matted with sweat and blood, his whole body protesting roughly as a cold hand touched his stomach, making him retch as it pushed hard on his skin, making him shudder with pain.

"I..nu..yasha…" a disembodied voice echoed around the chamber, the lights above his head making him wince as he opened his sensitive eyes, preventing him from looking left or right.

"Dammit" he hissed, the hand on his stomach running up to his chest to tip-toe across his shoulder.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk…what a naughty boy." The hand's owner purred, black hair dripping into his face.

"Kagura" he growled, her flowery scent glancing across his nostrils.

"Mmmm…now we're talking, and you're all mine" she laughed lightly, her breath hitting his sensitive ears as she ran one hand through his damp silver hair and twisted it roughly, causing him to let out a dog like yelp of pain. "Bad dog…" she growled, her fan hitting him hard on his shoulder.

"Lord Sesshoumaru wanted me to tell you something, Inuyasha" she giggled, and he could feel the steel table shift as she sat on it, his eyes swimming as he made out her silhouette shadowed against the bright lights.

"I don't give a fuck what Sesshoumaru has to say" Inuyasha snapped, making a lunge with his head that almost put his mouth in biting distance of her hand.

"Tut tut, I'm afraid we're going to have to muzzle you." She snarled, her hands reaching onto a table behind her and lifting off a Hannibal Lector-esque leather-mask, the steel bars slamming down onto Inuyasha as she tied it to two rungs on the table on each side, effectively pinning him down.

"Nurse, I think we're going to have to take a blood sample." She said, a smirk lighting on her face as a silent looking black-clad guard walked towards her, and handed her something, which she ran her fingers over with a look of delight.

Suddenly, she whirled and revealed Tetsusaiga in her hands, a gleeful gleam in her eye as she stabbed it through his arm completely, causing him to gasp in shock as the metal scraped against the steel beneath it, leaving him pinned, blood dripping as his eyes swam even more.

"Mmm…fresh" she grinned, her hands reaching behind her to reveal a large, antiquated looking vile, placing a funnel in it as she slid it underneath his wound, the blood dripping down slowly as the rest pooled against his body, only a small amount making it off the table.

"Inuyasha…I'm afraid your blood is flowing quit sluggishly, let's just hope you don't run out before I'm finished."

Inuyasha's eyes swam even more as the room spun around him, rolling back into his head as he collapsed completely.

* * *

Kagome thrashed angrily as she was pulled onto the stretcher and tied down by orderlies wearing robes of stark white, some splashed with tints of red that looked eerily like blood.

"Let me go!" her foot flying through the air and catching one of them in the jaw.

"Kagome…calm down." A familiar voice commanded, her protests ceasing as like snake coiling in wait, her brother slid from the shadows, his arms bandaged, the limbs moving awkwardly as he stepped forward, his face marred by an eye-patch that covered one side, an ear piece attached on the other.

Lifting his hand, he removed the ear piece and set it down, sitting on a sliding stool and rolling towards her, his hands coming out to cup her face.

"Thank god you're alright!" he gasped, clutching her to him tightly, laying a kiss on her forehead.

"Souta…" she whispered, relaxing completely, the orderlies freezing as Souta sent a glare in their direction.

"There is no need to tie her down." He snarled, pulling a gun from his belt, the safety clicking off of the menacing looking Glock, the orderlies dashing from the room as he slid it safely back into his belt.

A 'whoosh' sounded from the doors as shuffling, booty-covered feet entered, the bald surgeon Suikotsu standing with chart in hand, a tray of surgical tools rolling behind him with a strange looking little man pushing it.

"Mukotsu, stop." He snarled, his eyes staring at Souta intensely.

"Suikotsu, what are you doing here?" Souta asked, his eyes watching him warily as he turned to the tray to look over his instruments, his fingers testing them for their razor sharp edges as he deftly slid one into his sleeve away from Souta's prying eyes.

"Souta, you must know why I'm here." He said, an evil grin breaking out on his face as he walked towards him, hands seemingly empty as he slid towards the table, Kagome's face watching his warily.

"Sesshoumaru said I could come see my sister." Souta replied, his hand straying to his gun's holster, not liking the strange face that Suikotsu made when he smiled, a most unnatural expression for the middle-aged doctor.

"But Souta, visiting hours are over." He said, his teeth glinting as his tongue slid across them, watching Souta cautiously as he walked towards an IV drip hanging next to the bed and adjusted it. "Surely I can examine your sister without you interfering?"

"Examine her?" Souta growled, "Why?"

"But Souta, you are Sesshoumaru's closest ally…can it be that he hasn't told you _why_ you could see your sister?"

Souta glanced at Kagome, she had shrunk away from both of them, but was unable to climb off the stretcher without notice. Suikotsu lunged forward suddenly, catching her broken foot.

"You wouldn't want to hit the ground on that too hard," he said, purring. "Besides, I need all of your blood…it wouldn't do to have it spilled prematurely."

"Excuse me?" Kagome asked, her mouth opening in a gape of shock, "My blood?"

"Oh I'm sure _you_ know why I need your blood, but your brother, I'm afraid…" glancing back towards Souta where he stood, face shadowed, "Does not…"

"Souta…" Kagome whispered, her face worried.

"What do you mean by '_all of her blood'_?" Souta asked, his hand straying to his belt again as Suikotsu kept an eye on him, a smile on his face.

"Exactly what it sounds like, I'm afraid," Suikotsu laughed, his hands pinning Kagome's to the bed, "I'm going to bleed…her…dry…"

Souta's hand unsheathed his gun, but gurgled as his shot went wild, a scalpel suddenly protruding from his throat.

Suikotsu laughed as Mukotsu appeared from behind Souta, another implement stabbing into his back as he fell, rasping onto the floor.

"Souta!" Kagome shrieked, bucking wildly against Suikotsu's hands. "SOUTA!"

"Now," Suikotsu said, a smile on his face, "We can do this the easy way" he held up the scalpel, its edge touching her throat, "Or we can do this the hard way." A laugh came from his throat as he pointed to a dialysis like machine nearby.

"Either way, you'll be joining your brother shortly."

* * *

_Rounding deep in my sea of loathing_

_Broken your servant I am_

_It seems what's left of my human side is slowly changing_

_In me_

_Looking at my own reflection when suddenly it changes_

_Violently it changes_

_There is no turning back now, _

_You've woken up the demon_

_In me_


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16 – Walk this Way

A/N: So Chapter 16 – this plot is going forward and getting done! Lots getting ready to happen in the next chapter! I feel like finishing this will be a good thing for me to do. 

Enjoy!

Suggested listening, _"In the House, in a Heartbeat" – 28 Days Later Movie Soundtrack, and "Lacrymosa" by Evanescence with Music by W.A. Mozart_

* * *

The double black doors slid open, Suikotsu stepping inside, his robes splashed with blood, a deep gouge over his brow.

"Report", a scathing voice ordered, a vile looking hand sliding from the darkness at the end of the room from above Rin's head, her dark hair falling down her back in puddles of ebony as she sat, coiled on the steps, a handgun with silencer attached laying across her lap, her eyes wearily looking in Suikotsu's direction.

"The operation has begun my lord…the antidote will soon be prepared."

"And?" Sesshoumaru growled, his skin tearing as he gripped the edge of the chair he sat in, ooze dripping down the sides.

"We disposed of Souta as you ordered."

A cold "Dismissed" floated across the air as Suikotsu turned away, walking back through the doors as quickly as he had entered, trying not to show his shaking limbs as he wiped the sweat off of his brow.

The last messenger to speak to Sesshoumaru's head sat on a pedestal next to the door, tongue nailed to the wall, eyes rolled grotesquely to the side as his decapitated body dangled useless, pinned to the wall with a great silver stake through its torso.

Shuddering, Suikotsu slid around the corner, gasping as a hand grasped his throat like a vice grip.

"K..Kagura…" he gargled, her fingers pressing into his pulse points and lifting him up above her head.

"Progressing well, are we?" another voice purred from the corner.

"Sou…Souta…" Suikotsu gasped, his eyes rolling as the dead body of Souta stepped out of the corner, scalpel still protruding from his throat, eyes heavy lidded and unblinking.

"What the…" Suikotsu hissed, as a hand protruded from Souta's stomach, another body stepping out of the shell of the dead man, sloughing off his skin like a snake, his body falling into a massive heap of blood and mangled meat as a naked form stepped from the remains, "Now…where is the girl?" the man asked, stepping forward into the light, his lanky, dark hair hanging in waves down his back, his other hand touching Kagura's frame lightly as she gave a smirk of recognition.

"I…I…" he gasped, his lips turning a faint shade of blue as bruises appeared on his neck where Kagura's grip held firm. "I don't know…I don't know…" he cried, tears leaking form the side of his eyes.

"Oh, but I think you do…" he laughed, his naked feet padding across the blood splattered floors. "I'd hate for you to have to…be persuaded."

A vicious looking claw protruded from the intruder's hand, sliding up to sink into the meaty flesh of Suikotsu's shoulder, pushing all the way through and growing into the wall, miasma leaking off of it, oozing into the flesh and rotting it away.

"Now…where is the girl?" he asked once more, the burning flesh causing Suikotsu to writhe in pain.

"Level five, level five!" he shrieked, "The lab next to the dungeons!"

"Why thank you" the man laughed, sheathing his claw and nodding to Kagura. She dropped him onto the ground, her fan whirling to slit his throat.

A waterfall of blood oozed onto the floor as they turned and walked down the corridor, its tint an eerie shade of green wafting down the hall.

"Well done Kagura…" the man whispered, lifting the blood stained lab coat from the dying scientist's body, ignoring it and wrapping it around his body, Suikotsu's belt tying it shut.

"It was no problem, Lord Naraku."

* * *

Miroku hissed in annoyance as he fiddled with the lock on his shackles, his legs aching and bruised. He smiled lightly as he heard the satisfying 'click' of a job well done, and pulled his aching wrists from the manacles, rubbing their red raw edges and leaning down to tend to his legs.

At least they had splinted him, but as of right now, he was entirely incapacitated, just waiting for the next guard to check on him and tie him back up. Growling, he took the mangled remains of one of his earrings, which he had turned into a pick, and crawled towards the door, his crouching position just high enough to reach into the keyhole.

He slid a broken piece of mirrored glass underneath the door, watching for intruders, his whole body quivering with pain and exhaustion. His hands still felt numb, but he had to keep going.

The pounding of footsteps on the stone corridors made him pause, but it wasn't enough to stop him from fiddling with the lock. He watched the mirror attentively, watching the lights in it shimmer as the footsteps shook the wall brackets. As they passed, he stopped his job and froze, hardly breathing. A guard would be suspicious if they found a prisoner who was supposed to be on the opposite wall sitting by the door when they came in, but then again, not all guards were the brightest crayons in the box either.

The steps faded and he continued, his fingers moving automatically. He glanced down into the mirror again, and froze. A face was staring down into the glass, he couldn't see its owner, but he dropped the pick, the ping of metal on stone sounding like an avalanche of noise as he tried to shuffle backwards and away from the door.

The doorknob rattled and cracked, and he shuffled faster, trying to find the manacles in the near darkness of the cell as it was flung wide, the shadowed figure staggering into the room.

"Miroku?" a voice asked, and he froze, stepping forward into the red light emanating from the fire alarms set overhead.

"Sango" he gasped, crawling forward, her hands leaning down to touch him.

"Let's get out of here." She hissed, hefting him upwards, her bullet wounds almost making her give way. Sesshoumaru had not wanted to kill her, only intimidate her. The bullet wound in her shoulder was the worst…the rest were mere grazes.

She forced herself to drag him into the hall, and then into a nearby alcove, her whole body shaking as they sank to the ground, out of sight, the door to the cell clanging shut.

"Shit…someone will have heard that." She groused, yanking him back further.

"Where are we going?" Miroku gasped, his legs hitting a stone sticking out farther than the rest.

"Out!" Sango kicked in a nearby air duct, and pushed Miroku in even farther, sliding in after him and yanking the grate on as their guards thundered by towards the cells.

"Come on" Miroku growled, turning up the duct which climbed steeply, but not impassably, upwards. "We need to go."

She nodded in the darkness and followed, willing her wounds to remain closed as she followed, her hands grasping the metal edges, hoping her blood wouldn't make the chute slippery.

* * *

Kagome's muffled glares from behind her gag and muzzle weren't very intimidating, but she was doing all she could to prevent the strange, toady little Mukotsu from sticking the long hypodermic into her skin that he held, his alcohol swab cold against the crook of her elbow.

The rattling of another tray startled her as a woman with dark hair and scrubs slid through the double doors, her eyes barely visible from behind the mask covering her face, her hands swathed in white latex.

"More supplies, Mukotsu, sir." She grunted noncommittally, her eyes sweeping the room in a manner uncharacteristic of all the other orderlies before her.

"Suikotsu coming back soon then, I suppose?" Mukotsu mumbled, his hands whirling over the tools she had brought him, stepping far too close to her.

"I don't think so, actually." She said, her hand cupping over his mouth and twisting his head hard to the side, the sickening 'crack' that accompanied the motion causing him to collapse to the floor, eyes rolling as he gasped for breath that would never again reach paralyzed lungs.

Kagome's eyes opened wide as she stared at the dying Mukotsu on the floor, her hands straining against the bonds that held her wrists down, their slight stature allowing them to almost completely slide through the bonds. Her feet had not been tied, and she heaved backwards, pushing hard, her skin chaffing against the metal as the girl turned her back on her and walked towards the computer console nearby, the many screens of the security screens making her eyes dart about.

Kagome pushed hard, hissing slightly as one hand popped free from the manacle, and she reached up to remove the bind on her mouth, silently dropping it onto the white padded table she lay on, licking her other hand and sliding saliva all over her wrists, making it slick and pushing once more, her wrist, barely healed from its original fracture cracking again lightly, but shoving it at such an angle, that eyes watering, she was able to remove it.

Sliding towards the edge of the exam table, she popped the IV out of her hand wrist, the needle leaving a trail of blood as her hand dripped, her whole body shuddering as her feet touched the ground, her injured leg almost giving way as she tried to put her weight on it.

"And where do you think you're going?" The woman asked, not even turning away from the consoles, one eye sliding around to glance at the girl behind her discreetly.

Kagome didn't speak, only eyed the empty laundry chute in room, the pile of soiled sheets next to it making her wince. She needed a diversion.

"Where is my brother?" she asked, her voice quivering.

"Dead" the woman replied. "Dead and gone for good."

"No…" Kagome whispered, as if she hadn't just seen her brother murdered before her not thirty minutes before, tears streaking down her face. Damn, maybe she would make a good actress.

The woman barely stopped what she was doing on the console, her fingers typing at about twenty miles per minute as code flew up on the screen, and one by one, the cameras shut down, leaving the screens with a vibrant red screen and a black spider in the middle.

Kagome stepped to the side while she was distracted, her eyes on the open chute. She just needed to dive just right, and she'd have it. Her injured leg tugged on a cord, and she stared as she followed it underneath the computer. Perhaps it was the power cord?

She looked at the wall, where it was plugged, a screen with a formula on it on print out, a copier nearby shooting out information rapidly. Tugging with her foot, she made it look like she'd tripped, the printer going silent as the woman went over to it, her body language angry and frustrated and she tried to make it work.

Kagome took her chance and dove, almost clocking her head on the ceiling as she slid into the smooth slide head first, a scream from the woman behind her making her yelp in terror.

She hit a pile of sheets and dove onto the concrete next to them, listening to the woman behind her dive into the chute as well. Thinking rapidly, she flung the sheets sideways, exposing the hard concrete floor underneath them as the woman slid down face first, slamming into the concrete like a ton of bricks, blood splattering on the ground as she let out a groan.

Kagome reached down and seized the ID card dangling around her neck and turned and ran towards the exit sign, leaving the girl gargling in her own blood.

"Kagura…" she whispered, sliding the card through the ID base. Even if the girl did survive the fall, she wasn't getting out of this basement, Kagome thought.

"Good riddance," she huffed.

* * *

_Out on your own_

_Cold and alone again_

_Can this be what you really wanted_

_Baby_

_Blame it on me_

_Set you free_

_Nothing can hold you back now_


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen – What I've Done

A/N: I hope you all are enjoying this  I'm almost done, I told myself I'd cut it off at twenty chapters, so I'm going to try and fit this all in. The big climax is coming!

_Suggested Listening: "What I've Done" by Linkin Park, also on the Transformers Soundtrack_

* * *

A door grinding back caused Inuyasha to awaken, his ears slit from tip to base, unable to twitch them without whimpering. Each movement caused him to shudder, his arm still pinned by the massive sword.

His golden eyes slid towards the opening, and he let out a feral snarl as his brother staggered into the room, his whore following him, her dark hair pulled into a low ponytail, her long robes tied up on the sides to prevent them from trailing on the filthy floors. Skin peeled off of him in chunks and dropped to the floor, his breath raspy and uneven, his eyes red and gleaming with murder as he walked towards the table where Inuyasha lay.

He yanked the sword out of Inuyasha's arm, blood oozing from the wound as the drenched blade, barely nicked by the poison seeping through his bloodstream sizzled on the steel, leaving holes in the stretcher.

"Where are they?" his brother hissed, the sword at Inuyasha's throat, the bruises on Inuyasha's face making it hard for him to open his mouth, a gaping hole in the side of his brother's face exposing bone and gum and teeth, moving and stretching the tattered bits of skin that still attached the upper and lower portions of skin on his face.

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about…" Inuyasha rasped, his throat dry, his whole body trembling under the onslaught of pain as his arm throbbed.

"Your bodyguards and the girl have disappeared, two of my surgeons are dead Inuyasha…do not pretend that you don't know of what I speak."

Inuyasha let out a feeble chuckle. "Fuck off…" he growled, flicking one middle finger lazily at his brother, his mouth hidden from behind the muzzle still pinning him down. At least his brother couldn't see his lips in a frown of agony.

A sudden gasp from behind caused Sesshoumaru to turn, his breath catching in his throat. There, in the doorway, stood Naraku, his claws protruding from his hands as he pinned them dangerously close to Rin's throat, a hiccupping sob erupting from her chest as her gun clattered to the floor uselessly, Sesshoumaru's lips peeling back into a feral snarl.

"Well, well, well…" Naraku laughed, dragging Rin under his arm and into the light of the room, the bulb hanging from a cord above whirling dangerously around, giving the light a strobe effect.

"Naraku…" Sesshoumaru hissed, his hands tightening on the sword and moving it away from his brother's body.

"Oh…so you do know me." Naraku laughed, his fingers trailing lazily on Rin's throat as her hair fell over her eyes, hiding the tears trickling down her cheeks.

"Vaguely" Sesshoumaru coughed, his eyes watering as he tried to keep his wavering vision on the swaying man in front of him.

"Sesshoumaru…" Naraku said, his tone mock-insulted, "I would think that the man who connived with his servants to _steal_ the formula for the antidote to miasma from my lab would know better than to cross someone such as I."

"I stole _nothing_." Sesshoumaru hissed, the sword lazily moving forward, its chipped length scraping against the floor with a sound like nails on a chalkboard.

"Oh, really?" Naraku growled. "Then how do you explain the leak of chemicals into my lab that left me like this!" he roared, ripping open his shirt to reveal a spider shaped hole in his chest, the muscles moving under no skin, the blood leaking, replaced by oozing green.

"My Kagura tells me you know much more than I think you do…" he growled, holding up the same vial of blood that had dribbled from Inuyasha so slowly earlier, and his eyes swam at the reddish-green tint it gave off, almost like a neon bulb inside a glass bottle.

"Kagura?" Sesshoumaru gasped, his voice barely showing a hint of shock. He used the diversion in his voice to step backwards, his fingers hovering over the clips to the locks on Inuyasha's limbs. One push of the button would release all four manacles, he trusted that Inuyasha could remove his own gag.

"In fact…" Naraku said with a smile, glancing at a portable scanner in his hand, "Her card just lit up one level down…it seems she's coming our way."

Sesshoumaru's fingers closed on the button, his enmity with Inuyasha withstanding, it would not do to die with the cure in his grasp.

"Now…" he whispered, his fingers hitting the button, Inuyasha's cuffs sliding back with a barely audible 'woosh'. "Stay still…" he hissed, eyes still watching Naraku, ears still listening to the sobs of his lover.

* * *

Kagome thudded up the stairs, 'hop step, hop step'. Her uneven footfalls thudding on the iron grid floor, clattering noisily, her hand dripping blood steadily onto the ground from the wound where her IV was located, leaving a macabre trail behind her.

She slammed into the exit door, the stairs stopping on 'Level 5', and she slid through them, her card beeping again as she pushed into the hallway, one that was littered with stretchers, the cold air making her shiver. A pair of human feet protruded from underneath a white sheet, and she jerked to the side.

She was in a morgue.

Shuddering, she passed the bodies by, trying not to glance under the sheets, trying not to look for a familiar face hidden beneath the fabric.

A hand shot out from underneath one of the stretchers and caught her foot, causing her to let out a scream of fright. Looking down, she found herself face to face with Sango, pale, blood dripping down the side of her face, half out of an air duct. The body on top of the stretcher sat up slowly, and Miroku's eyes peered from beneath the sheet.

She backed into the wall, chest thudding heavily, her hand over her heart to try and calm the pounding she felt beneath her skin. Sango pressed a finger to her lips and slid from inside the hole, some of her graze wounds dripping blood and looking more serious than they actually were.

Miroku groaned as Sango beckoned to Kagome with one finger, and began to push the stretcher down the hall.

"We've been hiding down here…too many guards…" she hissed, eyes narrowed in the dark passageway. "Miroku's legs are pretty bad off, he can't walk too far, it was hard enough for him to crawl from inside the vent."

Miroku let out a murmur of pain as the stretcher bumped into another in the hallway, their feet sounding like thunder in the abandoned corridor, left with only the company of the dead as they made a pathway to navigate.

"Where's Inuyasha?" Kagome gasped, the cold aching her leg and arm, the fast pace making her stumble.

"I don't know" Sango replied, "Miroku knows even less than I do, I'm the only one who's seen Sesshoumaru, and he doesn't look very good."

They rounded the corner, a set of double doors that appeared to be the type found on freezers and slammed through them, knocking the guard in front of them flying, his head colliding with a wall corner, silencing him before he could cry for help.

The warmth of the hallway made them both sigh in relief, Miroku, still under his sheet, wiggling a little as his breath stopped misting the air from beneath it. The wall shook and the floor vibrated, sending the stretcher careening onto its side as Sango threw herself over Kagome, the massive concrete structure next to them shattering and exploding, the body of a woman thrown like a rag doll into their pile as someone howled in rage.

A gunshot rang out, ricocheting around as the lights shook, a roar exploding from the room before them as Inuyasha, eyes blazing red as he stepped over the rubble, claws extended from his hands, his arm gaping open, flesh tatters hanging as a illness ravaged Sesshoumaru stood beside him, both staring at into the dusty hallway, a scream from hell ravaging their ears as Naraku emerged from the depths. His shirt torn away, spider pattern revealing his heart beating beneath the skin.

He shot forwards, poison leaking from his claws as Sango threw the sheet over her wards, the unconscious girl beneath Miroku as she scurried them back behind the stretcher. Naraku lunged forward, his hands reaching into the pile of people to snatch Kagome from where she lay, Sango's cry as she was ripped from her arms startling Inuyasha.

"Now…this girl is mine." Naraku laughed, his hand reaching down to hold Kagome against his bloody skin, her still bleeding hand flailing against him as he lifted her with one arm.

A drop of her blood fell from her hand onto his chest, and sizzled, causing him to freeze. It was as if a chain reaction had been set off – Naraku's skin shudder and seemed to retch on its poison. He dropped Kagome onto the ground hard, flailing about as skin seemed to regrow itself over his exposed organs, his heart hidden now by a translucent layer of skin, then, a thicker one, the poison oozing out of him and into great puddles on the floor, evaporating as his blood dripped with it.

He writhed about more, slamming into the wall, his cries echoing around. And then stopped.

He stood there, whole. Complete.

Cured.

Inuyasha lunged forward, his fist slamming into the healed skin, his claws piercing the heart that beat beneath his fingers and crushing, and twisting, his mouth opening in a primal roar as his hand came out of Naraku's back, blood dribbling out of Naraku's mouth.

"You and your dumb shit…made us like this." Inuyasha hissed, teeth gnashing.

Naraku smirked, eyes fading, and lifted the gun in his hand and shot Inuyasha through the heart, and the two fell, dead, on the floor.

* * *

_In this farewell_

_There's no blood_

_There's no alibi_

_Cuz I've drawn regret_

_From the truth _

_Of a thousand lies_

_So let mercy come_

_And Wash Away_

_What I've done_

* * *

Sorry, additional A/N:

I just wanted to say that I pictured Sesshoumaru's gaping hole in his face like Imhotep from the Mummy, when he has only procured two sets of organs to reform his body, and his cheek has strings of rotting flesh hanging from lower jaw to upper, that stretch when he talks, or you could just go with the crazy zombie girl from Land of the Dead with the missing flesh on her jaw. I'll still never figure out how they made that make-up…absolutely wild. Anyways, just wanted to post that there, you can google the images online, it's a pretty awesome visual IMO. Thanks for reading!


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Self-Righteous Suicide

A/N: Oh we're getting close to the end! dance This chapter will be very informative and don't worry, it'll get better. Two chapters to go.

_Suggested listening "Chop-Suey" by System of a Down (I did it again! Wrong artist -- and I knew this one too Stupid projectplaylist...) _

Kagome didn't even realize that she had screamed until she found herself dragging Inuyasha off of Naraku, cutting her arm on the glass and metal shards surrounding them, her weak arm barely strong enough to lift him, flipping him, tears from nowhere streaming down her face.

"Inuyasha…Inuyasha!" she yelped, beating his chest, his heart still beneath the hole gaping there, blood trickling slowly from the wound in his back as she tried to do something to revive him.

Sango reached for her and tugged her numbly backwards as Kagome clung to his body. Kagome…he's gone." She whispered, "Come on, we need to go."

"I'm not leaving him here!" Kagome yelped, clinging tightly to the body, from which warmth was fading rapidly.

She began to try and do CPR, her blood trickling from the cuts on her hands into the wound, her lips blowing breath into his lungs, his chest not even moving upwards. "No…no…" she murmured. "He saved my life…"

She pressed her lips tight to Inuyasha's once more, blowing, then just resting them there, her tears trickling down her cheeks and onto his face.

A gasp from Sango did nothing to alleviate her pain as she lay there, her head on the hole in his heart, her body shaking with dry sobs. She was out of tears to cry.

She barely heard it the first time, it was tiny, and barely there, weak enough that it didn't even move his chest, but the second time, it was stronger.

Inuyasha's heart beat once, twice, and then under her ear it beat again. Its pattern was random, but when she looked down, she could no longer see it, skin covering the wound, tendons re-forming, bones healing, her face staring in shock as he dragged in a deep breath, his eyes opening, not gold, not red, but a lovely shade of lavender.

His hair melted from wild and white to soft black, and he lifted one hand in shock to his face as his claws retracted into normal human nails, the longer nails on his toes sliding into his feet. The hole in his arm closed, and he reached his hands up to the side of his head, only to find his ear's missing.

"Wait…" he whispered, fingers trailing through mountains of dark hair, to feel his dog ears, still the same, still twitching on the top of his head.

"Inu..Inuyasha!" Kagome yelled, throwing herself on top of him, ignoring his wince as he flattened his ears to his head.

"Fuck…I have a headache…" he grunted, his hands running through his hair.

Kagome laughed, her eyes watching his own. He lay there, amidst the glass, his opponent dead beside him, his fingers coated in his blood, and she sat beside him, smiling.

For the first time in years, Inuyasha looked at her, and the corners of his mouth began to turn upwards. Suddenly, another hand shot out of nowhere and dragged Kagome upwards, she yelped when she stared straight into the rotting face of Sesshoumaru, his breath foul in her face as she struggled.

Inuyasha jumped upwards, but his brother blasted him backwards with one shove, his weakened form hitting the wall, blood trickling down the side of his head.

"Kagome!" he growled, trying to sound as menacing as he had before, but failing miserably.

Sesshoumaru grabbed her face with his oozing fingers, the poison flaring backwards before it touched her, and she reached out with her bloody fingers to grasp his arm. Her blood slid over one of his sores, and it closed, his eyes rolling back in relief.

He set her down gently, and pulled back his robe, his chest a pock marked battlefield between immune system and virus. Her hands gently touched each wound, and each one closed, her blood sealing a bond between the two of them as her antibodies melded with his blood, fighting the virus, the wound on his face closing of its own accord.

He let out a rattling, ragged breath, and turned to sit on the ground, the girl who had been knocked out standing, shakily and walking towards him to collapse in between his legs, her chest leaning against his sweaty, bloody one.

Tears dripped down her cheeks, and her fingers curled into his robes, her black hair spilling down her back as she collapsed on top of him, his hands curling around her to pick her up as he stood, chest heaving, to stare at the wounded before him.

Never again would Sesshoumaru's brother be so weak, or at his mercy again. Inuyasha knew this, Sango and Miroku knew this, and yet, when he stepped forward, he reached a hand out to him.

Unclawed fingers touched each other as he hauled his brother upwards, pressing into his hand the rusted sword hilt.

"Get out of my sight." He growled, but Inuyasha could see, his eyes were soft.

The four of them turned, Inuyasha lifting Kagome, weak and tired in his arms, and walked beside Sesshoumaru down the debris littered hallway, Sango, Miroku on her back, trailing behind as they stepped from the darkness of the ruined house through a broken window, and onto a balcony, sunlight shadowing their silhouettes.

For the first time in ten years, Inuyasha breathed air without smelling far too much, and he stood there, looking out, on a bright new future.

_Trust in my self-righteous suicide_

_I cry_

_When Angels deserve to die_


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: So after like…forever…this story is done! The future is wide open for Inuyasha, Kagome, Miroku, and Sango.**

**Suggested Listening: "Moments" by Westlife**

**Chapter 19: Epilogue**

Kagome posed, her lips pouty as she straddled the elephant in her photo shoot, her haute couture gown trailing down the animal's flanks as her head dress flopped into her eyes, its massive purple flumes making her widly over-done make-up pop against the backdrop of jungle leaves and vibrant orchids.

"Beautiful, Kag, absolutely beautiful!" her photographer shouted, her agent giving her a beaming smile and thumbs-up.

The paparazzi had gone nuts when Kagome had returned from her "vacation" slimmer, fitter, and well rested, her hair glossier, her whole body shining for the camera. She had walked every runway from Milan to Paris, her feet stomping out a rhythm unmatched by her competitors.

She'd finally taken that movie part, and Hollywood had loved her. Her agent had gone mad at her success, and she felt like a porcelain doll touted from locale to locale, from Caribbean islands to Alaskan snow, her skin sunkissed.

Stepping out of her dressing room after the shoot, her tall, calf-high boots clicked on the concrete as she walked towards her car. She had refused to ride in a limousine since the fateful night of her kidnapping, and she turned towards her sensible Prius and climbed in, buckling up and backing out, driving to her new penthouse suite at a new high income apartment complex just outside of town.

Pulling into the parking lot, she passed the sign on the entrance, its slogan strewn across a twenty foot long banner in brilliant colors, _"Beauty and the Beast Gardens, Sleep peacefully and tame your inner animal." _

Laughing, she waved at the security guard, not even glancing twice at the massive assault rifle he carried instead of the normal rent-a-cop's gun. A valet opened her door and she walked through the massive marble corridors, waving at the consierge.

"Your husband is waiting for you upstairs, Kagome" a voice jabbered, and she smiled at Shippo, the bellhop.

"Could we get two steaks delivered from downstairs for dinner? An eight ounce sirloin for myself, medium-well, and you know how the master likes his steaks."

"So rare a good vet could bring it back to life?" Shippo quipped.

"Exactly"

Stepping into the elevator, Kagome watched the floors rise until she reached the very top, stepping out into her spacious ante-chamber to her living room, smiling as she walked into the kitchen, where a single red rose had fallen off of the counter. Leaning down to pick it up, she wasn't startled when she was grabbed from behind and pinned to the stove, a sharp nibble from not-so-human fangs tickling her neck.

"Inuyasha!" she yelped, the rose pricking her finger.

He suckled her thumb, his eyebrows wiggling mischievously as he pushed her back into the counter, lips connecting with her own before he swung her up in his arms.

"I'm glad I ordered dinner…" Kagome giggled.

"Me too, but I think…" he growled, "That I'm hungry for something else."

"You are such an animal…" she giggled, feeling his chest vibrate as he dumped her on the bed and peeled off her tank top.

"Mmm…and don't you forget it."

**Ending A/N: So after I think (four) years (my first reviews were in 2003) I have finished Beast! This story lasted throughout high school and almost into my third year of college. But I finally finished it! I feel accomplished:-P**

If i die tonight,  
I'd go with no regrets,  
If it's in your arms,  
I know that i was blessed,  
And if your eyes,  
are the last thing that i see,  
Then i know the beauty heaven holds for me,


End file.
